What an election day should be like

Fresh off the boat from Mykonos and still carrying my bag, I found myself Sunday night in the midst of a city-wide celebration following the day's presidential elections. Unlike in the U.S., where everyone stays home to watch the results and then goes to bed, the Greeks in support of the winning the party - in this case, the New Democrats, which is the conservative party currently in power - poured into the streets with flags, airhorns and a lot of beer. Despite the intense criticism ND got for its handling of the fires, they were re-elected with a surprisingly large margin (my Greek teacher explained that the major opposition party had been in power for 20 years, and were so plagued by scandals towards the end that Greeks were essentially picking whomever they felt was a lesser evil).

ND had a mini-headquarters in Syntagma square, so my friend Ian and I headed down there first from the academic center (naturally checking email was the priority after Mykonos). A crowd of ND supporters were standing in front of a large screen set up in the center of the square that was broadcasting election results, and it was cool, but not as crazy as we had thought.

So we started walking back towards Kolonaki, and saw that a much larger group of people were headed toward the ND's main headquarters, which was a few blocks from Syntagma. We got to the street around 11pm and it was PACKED. There were people everywhere, chanting and yelling, and after asking around we learned that at 11:30 (it was around 11pm at the time), the Prime Minister would come out. The press were set up on a platform opposite the entrance to the building, and they were also in cherry pickers above the street. We pushed our way into the crowd to get a good view, and when the PM and his wife (side note: my Greek teacher says that he was known for having affairs with men for a long time, and when he got serious into politics, he got himself a trophy wife and some kids...) came outside, the crowd absolutely erupted. All he did was wave and head inside, and everyone just went nuts.

When that ended, the crowd started moving back towards Vassilis Soffias, which is a main avenue in Athens (I walk on it from my apartment to school). All night there were dozens of cars driving by waving ND flags and honking, and at this point people starting running around in the streets, effectively stopping traffic. We went back to Syntagma for a little bit, which is where everyone was headed, and then decided that we were finally too exhausted to stay out any longer.

It was incredible to see how overtly passionate the ND supporters were - the whole thing made the political process a lot more exciting. The election was also a win for some of the smaller parties, which my Greek teacher speculated took some of the votes away from the main opposition party.


ND supporters in Syntagma square watching the election results come in.


Outside the ND headquarters - at this point someone yelled out something (in Greek) and everyone raised up their flags and starting chanting and blowing airhorns. This would happen every couple of minutes leading up to the PM's appearance.


Also in front of the ND headquarters, and you can see the press off to the left. The crowd stretched much farther down, across, and back than you can see in this picture.


More ND supporters driving around - at this point everyone was also walking in the streets.