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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/17/greek-elections-voters-europe-chance
"Voters give Europe and euro a chance"
Not mentions is that pro-austerity parties New Democracy and Pasok got, between them, not quite 43% of the vote. ND gets to form a government with Pasok only because of a constitutional provision that grants an extra 50 seats to the plurality winner -- a provision put in by New Democracy, I'm told. In fact voters rejected parties backing the austerity/bailout/memorandum by a large majority. If the legislature properly reflected the election results, it would be leftist Syriza trying to form a government with all the other anti-austerity parties -- an interesting challenge, granted, with the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn having about 7% of the vote, thus the difference between a bare majority and the full 57%.
Granted, giving majorities to minorities is a pretty common result; just happened in France, and in Scotland earlier, and in Canada. But it's rarely such an explicit design feature; in fact in Scotland people were saying "the system was designed to make single-party majorities unlikely!" though from my POV these people can't do math.
In other news, an article on the French election includes
One of the biggest upsets for the Socialists came in La Rochelle, where the Socialist former presidential candidate Ségolène Royal was beaten by a dissident candidate expelled from the Socialist party for standing against her. Royal's battle was at the centre of a presidential private-life saga this week when Hollande's partner, the journalist Valérie Trierweiler, tweeted her support of the dissident. Hollande had backed Royal, who was his partner for 30 years and is mother of his four children.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/17/socialist-party-french-parliament
Just seems so weird to an American... though I'm not sure if 'partner' here means a purely private couple, or one registered as what we'd call a civil union, since those seem to have displaced 'marriage' in France even for heterosexuals.
"Voters give Europe and euro a chance"
Not mentions is that pro-austerity parties New Democracy and Pasok got, between them, not quite 43% of the vote. ND gets to form a government with Pasok only because of a constitutional provision that grants an extra 50 seats to the plurality winner -- a provision put in by New Democracy, I'm told. In fact voters rejected parties backing the austerity/bailout/memorandum by a large majority. If the legislature properly reflected the election results, it would be leftist Syriza trying to form a government with all the other anti-austerity parties -- an interesting challenge, granted, with the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn having about 7% of the vote, thus the difference between a bare majority and the full 57%.
Granted, giving majorities to minorities is a pretty common result; just happened in France, and in Scotland earlier, and in Canada. But it's rarely such an explicit design feature; in fact in Scotland people were saying "the system was designed to make single-party majorities unlikely!" though from my POV these people can't do math.
In other news, an article on the French election includes
One of the biggest upsets for the Socialists came in La Rochelle, where the Socialist former presidential candidate Ségolène Royal was beaten by a dissident candidate expelled from the Socialist party for standing against her. Royal's battle was at the centre of a presidential private-life saga this week when Hollande's partner, the journalist Valérie Trierweiler, tweeted her support of the dissident. Hollande had backed Royal, who was his partner for 30 years and is mother of his four children.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/17/socialist-party-french-parliament
Just seems so weird to an American... though I'm not sure if 'partner' here means a purely private couple, or one registered as what we'd call a civil union, since those seem to have displaced 'marriage' in France even for heterosexuals.