Archive - May 6, 2012

As we expected, the previous unofficial poll forecasts were total rubbish, and according to exit polls from NET TV, the results are as follows:

• New Democracy: 17-20%
• Pasok: 14-17%
• In a stunner, Syrizia, or the coalition of the radical left - a vehement anti-Bailout party - gets more votes than the ruling PASOK party: 15.5%-18.5%
• Independent Greeks: 10-12%
• Finally, and not surprisingly in the aftermath of the French results, the ultra right Golden Dawn gets 6-8% of the vote and will make it into Parliament

Tallied across, up to 60% of the new parliament will be anti-bailout (at least according to exit polls), and hence "Domino toppling." Good luck with that pro-bailout coalition government. Needless to say these results are very ugly and make any prospect of a pro-bailout coalition cabinet virtually impossible. Suddenly the fate of the European experiment is in the hands of the ultra right and the far left - yup, Neo-Nazis will determine the future of Europe. How quaint... again - congratulations Europe.

According to Reuters, Italy is going to propose to the European Union that they should exempt borrowing used to pay their commercial obligations from their calculation of public debt. Monti, the article states, is also going to propose exempting the counting of public debt used for investments. You may be sure that Italy’s $211 billion of derivatives will now be entitled an “investment.”  Now all of this will lower Italy’s debt to GDP ratio which is the real reason for these proposals and so even worse falsified numbers can be handed out to the Press in hopes that money will be invested in Italy based upon not just inaccurate but offically countenanced manufactured data. This way not only the debt to GDP ratio can be falsified but the growth numbers, the fiscal targets and a raft of other numbers that will no longer be real but just a systemic figment of Europe’s imagination.

And from one presidential election, we go to the other even more crucial parliamentary election, in Greece, where courtesy of Planet-Greece we have the first unofficial exit polls. Since these numbers differ massively with what opinion polls predicted as recently as 2 weeks ago, and indicate the status quo is likely to persist, we urge everyone to take these with a huge grain of salt.

The second round of the French presidential election is by now well underway, with just 5 hours left in the voting day, a 30.66% voter turnout by noon (compared to 34.11% in the runoff round in 2007) according to the Ministry of the Interior, and in which the first exit polls give Hollande an expected 52.5-53% lead over Sarkozy. While not much can be disclosed by law until polling stations close at 8pm, our French speaking readers can find the best live blog of the election at Le Figaro, while for everyone else we recommend the following live feed of France24 TV in English with the best election coverage. At this point one thing is certain: it will take either a miracle, or Diebold, to prevent the official launch of Horkel (which we are more partial to, as we coined it, than Merlande), or in those rare occasions when the media establishment has has enough of being lied to, Merde.