Greeks headed to the voting booths Sunday for the first of three indirect electoral tests this week and next, with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras facing what is seen as a referendum of sorts on his two-party government.
The first round of local elections this Sunday, followed by a runoff next week and a European Parliament vote, marks the first time Greece's crisis-battered citizens have been called to the polls since the current government came to power two years ago at the peak of the country's debt crisis.
In the middle-class suburb of Maroussi, north of Athens, some saw the double-round elections as an opportunity to send a message to Greece's euro-zone partners—in particular Germany, widely seen as the architect of the austerity Greeks have endured.
And though the results won't alter the coalition's narrow two-seat majority in Greece's 300-seat legislature, they will be symbolic for both the government and the radical-left opposition. The outcome could determine whether Greece sticks with its reform agenda or is plunged into renewed political uncertainty.
A drubbing in the polls could reopen fissures within the coalition, already strained by the tough austerity measures it has had to back.
Greece is currently in its seventh year of recession and more than a quarter of its workforce remains unemployed. Such harsh conditions have fueled the rise of the radical-left Syriza opposition party since the last national elections two years ago.
Syriza is expected to capture the most seats in European Parliament elections next Sunday, with the latest polls showing it maintaining a narrow lead over the ruling New Democracy.
Municipal and regional elections will be held over two Sundays, with the second round coinciding with the European Parliament vote. Greeks are expected to return many incumbents to office, and most are identified with either New Democracy or its junior coalition partner, Pasok.
In local elections, though, candidates traditionally campaign under their own party banner and eschew national party labels, meaning that party preference—or disapproval—is expected to play a smaller role in voters' minds.
Of Greece's 13 regions, for example, few Syriza candidates are expected to garner enough votes to compete in a runoff vote and aren't expected to win any regions outright. In three of Greece's biggest municipalities—Athens, the port town of Piraeus and the northern city of Thessaloniki—Pasok and New Democracy incumbents hold solid leads over rivals. That is also the case in the Attica region, the prefecture surrounding Athens where roughly 40% of Greece's population lives.
Present at the dual polls will also be Greece's far-right Golden Dawn party, which got the green light from the Supreme Court to run in the elections even though all of its lawmakers are either in jail pending trial or face charges of belonging to a criminal organization.
If the coalition survives the dual polls, it will face an even greater electoral challenge early next year: the selection of the country's president by Parliament in March, a vote the government must win with a supermajority of at least 180 votes. The role is largely a ceremonial one, but if no president is elected after three rounds of voting, Parliament is dissolved and general elections are called.
