Pro-austerity blow in Greek vote, neo-Nazis gain seats

Page last updated at 09:00 GMT, Sunday, May 6, 2012 - 14:00 EST

AFP:

People walk by the Greek parliament in Athens

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Greece's two main parties suffered big losses in elections Sunday, exit polls showed, rocking the eurozone state's austerity plans after a strong showing by protest groups including the neo-Nazis.

Anti-austerity parties could have won up to 58 percent of the vote between them, the exit polls showed.

The conservative New Democracy led by Antonis Samaras was the largest party with 17-20 percent of the vote, insufficient to give it an absolute majority and down from 33.5 percent at the last election in 2009, the exit polls showed.

Socialist Pasok saw its score slump to 14-17 percent from 43.9 percent. The party even looked set to be leapfrogged into second place by the leftist Syriza, which scored 15.5-18.5 percent, up from 4.6 percent three years ago.

"The ruling parties have been struck by an earthquake. It has crushed Pasok and sent a strong tremor through New Democracy," shadow foreign minister Panos Panagiotopoulos said on television channel Mega.

Read the whole story: AFP