Greece's anti-bailout Syriza party wins vote

Supporters of left-wing Syriza party react after exit poll results in Athens, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2015. A senior official in Greece's governing conservatives has conceded defeat to the radical left Syriza party in Sunday's national elections. "We lost," Health Minister Makis Voridis told private Mega TV. "The extent of that result is not yet clear."(Photo: Petros Giannakouris, AP)Greece's radical left-wing Syriza party won a decisive — and historic — victory in Sunday's elections that could throw the country's future in the eurozone into question.It was unclear whether the anti-bailout party, led by Alexis Tsipras, would win a big enough margin over Prime Minister Antonis Samaras' conservatives to govern without needing to form a coalition.Samaras conceded Sunday, almost four hours after polls closed and after exit polls showed an overwhelming win for Syriza."The Greek people spoke," Samaras said at a news conference. "My conscience is clear. I received a country which was almost destroyed and I was asked to hold a hot potato and I did that ... We managed to take the country out of deficit, out of recession."He said his party's work, including taking difficult austerity measures, set the foundation to pull the country out of its fiscal crisis."Above all I hand over a country that is a member of the European Union and eurozone and for the good of the country, I hope the next government would maintain all this we have achieved," he said.Tsipras, in his victory speech, said, "Today the Greek people have made history. Hope has made history."Tsipras, 40, could become Greece's youngest prime minister in 150 years."The sovereign Greek people today have given a clear, strong, indisputable mandate, " he told a crowd of supporters. "Greece is leaving behind the destructive austerity, fear and authoritarianism. It is leaving behind five years of humiliation and pain."Syriza needs to win 151 of 300 parliamentary seats to form a government on its own. The Interior Ministry said its projections, based on early returns, show Syriza gaining 150 seats, but added that the margin of error meant the final number could be 149 to 151. A final result may not be known until all votes have been counted.The election results will focus attention on Monday's opening of the world financial markets, which may be upended if Tsipras keeps his promises to undo the austerity measures and to renegotiate the bailout package that kept Greece financially afloat since 2010.The election was held nearly two years ahead of time, and Syriza has run on a campaign of renegotiating the nation's $270 international bailout deal with the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund.Last year, Greece's debt topped $369 billion, or about $34,600 for each resident. Its growth rate has dropped 30% compared with seven years ago at the start of the first financial crisis. It has been crippled by a 26% unemployment rate and a third of the population lives below the poverty line.Tsipras has pledged to reverse many of the reforms pushed through to qualify for the rescue loans that have kept Greece financially afloat for the past four years. The country's creditors insist Greece must abide by its commitments to continue receiving support, and investors and markets alike have been spooked by the anti-bailout rhetoric.Talk of a "Grexit" — in which Greece would drop the euro currency it shares with 19 other European countries — has been less fraught than during a previous election in 2012, but it is still a possibility if the Syriza party officially wins and insists on new terms for its debt repayments not acceptable to its creditors. Germany is especially resistant to the idea of a new debt deal for Greece.The vote comes just a few days after the European Central Bank unveiled a monetary stimulus program that will see it purchase around $68.4 billion a month in bonds to counter falling prices, hold down interest rates and spur economic growth in the region.Contributing: The Associated PressSee the worst winter storms to hit NYC since 2000Jan 26, 2015