The Fear Factor in Greek Elections

New Democracy, the conservative party hoping to win Sunday’s national elections in Greece, recently set up a large stand in Athens’s Syntagma Square. It’s a few steps from Parliament but it’s also about 10 meters from the spot where a 77-year-old pensioner, Dimitris Christoulas, shot himself two months ago to protest the austerity measures choking Greece’s economy. In this campaign, fear is ever-present.

Antonis Samaras, the New Democracy leader, is due to speak in Syntagma on Friday in his final bid to convince Greeks to back his party, which came in first in inconclusive elections on May 6. Samaras is hoping that doubts about Greece’s future will be enough to hold off the surging leftist party, Syriza.

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