Best people to follow on Twitter in the run up to the 2015 elections - Greece

On 25th January the Greeks will once go to the polls to elect a new government, if the international media coverage so far is anything to go by the chances are we will see a repeat of the scaremongering news headlines that marked elections in 2012. Once again people who know no more about Greek politics than  you will appear on your screens and in the newspapers passing themselves off as experts. Often they will be doing nothing more than repeating received wisdom handed to them by EU and Greek government officials and their English speaking allies in the domestic press.

To give you a chance of hearing a much wider, not to say better informed range of opinions I have compiled a list of Twitter users who have consistently proven to be reliable sources of English language information about what is happening in Greece. They are an eclectic bunch though most would place themselves on the Left of the political spectrum, a fact neither I nor they hide. Ideology aside, though, they are people whose opinions I trust and who have demonstrated time and time again that they care more about telling the truth than promoting a particular party line.

So, in no particular order, let me present;

Asteris Masouras - The Godfather of  the Greek twittersphere.

Keep Talking Greece - Blogger who runs a website analysing latest Greek stories in English.

Thomais Papaioannou - Greek reporter based in Paris - Writes in Greek, French and English.

Stephanos Livos - Writer. Tweets in Greek and English.

Apostolis Fotiadis - Freelance journalist based in Athens.

Spyros Gkelis - Cyanobacteriologist, university lecturer. Tweets in Greek, English, Spanish, Italian.

Damian Mac Con Uladh - An Athens based Irish journalist.

Albert John - A rogue economist based in Greece.

The Press Project - An independent news outlet providing news and analysis for a global audience,

Vasiliki Siouti - A Greek journalist who writes in Greek and English.

Olivier Drot - Journalist and photographer, Writes in French, Greek and English

Mehran Khalili - Does political communications and photojournalism.

Tsimitakis - Greek journalist who tweets extensively in English

Joanna P - Radio Bubble contributor

Katharine Sarikakis - Professor of Media Governance University of Vienna

Derek Gatopoulos - An AP writer who tweets in English and Greek

Bruno Tersago - News junkie, philhellene, freelance correspondent for Flemish and Dutch media - based in Greece.

ElenaTzouanacou - UK based academic who writes in Greek and English.

Nick Barnets - An Athens based freelancer.

Katja Lihtenvalner - Athens based Slovenian reporters who also tweets in English

Stratos Moraitis - Writes in Greek, English and Turkish.

Yanis Varoufakis - Economics professor now standing as a SYRIZA candidate.

Zoe Mavroudi - Greek director and documentary film maker.

Yiannis Baboulis - Greek journalist based in Athens.

Yiannis Mouzakis - Greek economic analyst - writes in Greek and English.

Theodora Oikonomides - Blogger and contributor to the RadioBubble indie news service.

Last but not least.

Teacher Dude - Blogger and photojournalists based in Thessaloniki, northern Greece

Do not think of this as a definitive list, but rather a first attempt, so I you want to suggest an addition to this list, help me out by posting a comment.

However, the following news organisations are definitely sitting out 2015 on the naughty step. Not because of their political line but rather the long track record of blindly relying on Greek government sources, sloppy fact checking and inability to distance themselves from an official party line. Do not take their reports on Greece at face value, make sure you double check with more reliable sources.

Guardian

Bloomberg

The BBC

The Economist

Kathimerini (Greek daily that has an English language edition)

Peering into the future - Some predictions for the Greek election results

It's now just after 5pm here in Greece and within a couple of hours the voting will have finished and the first exit polls will be published. unlike many other elections the outcome of today's vote is far from clear. The largest party is most likely to be the conservative New Democracy with about 20-25%, followed by PASOK with 10-15% (the numbers are necessarily vague, a product of wildly differing opinion poll results). This is in sharp contrast to the 2009 national elections in which these two parties got the lion share of the vote with 78% combined, reflecting the stranglehold they have had over power since the late 70's.

However, beyond these two predictions not much else can be said for the possible make up of a future Greek government. The ECB, EU and IMF are all banking on these two parties being able to scrape together a majority in parliament in order to continue with the latest round of austerity measures scheduled for June and July. The leaders of PASOK and New Democracy, while swearing blind to the contrary are both hoping their electoral base will have held firm enough to give them a place in a coalition government and so avoid bloody internal conflict involving both backbenchers and rank and file party members. Both Venizelos and Samaras are by no means loved universally loved by their own supporters and a failure to get into power would open up still raw wounds  .

On the other hand many other smaller parties are picking up support from disgruntled ND/PASOK voters and that is really the joker in the pack, threatening to overturn the political status quo that was created in the aftermath of the fall of brutal Regime of the Colonels in 1974. Some parties such as the rightist Independent Greeks are new creations whilst others such as the Neo-Nazi Golden Dawn have a longer, if more savage lineage, either way they are attracting votes at a rate that would have been inconceivable even a couple of years ago.

On the left of the spectrum the old school communist party KKE has gained ground as have other leftist parties such as The Radical Left (SYRIZA) and the newly minted Democratic Left with some estimates saying their combined share of the vote may pass 40%.The one thing that unites such disparate groups is their opposition to the austerity package imposed by Greece's creditors, however what else could possibly bring them together remains a mystery.

I'm going to put my money where my mouth is and say that I believe that the polls will produce a three party coalition government including PASOK, New Democracy and possibly Independent Greeks party. I base this prediction on nothing more scientific than a hunch and past experience of Greek politics (though give the sweeping changes going through the system that may not be the best guide). the thing to remember when analysing politics here is that ideological labels often count for little when power is concerned and so a coalition will be based on mutually aligned interests rather than political overlap.

If such an alliance does take power I believe that it is destined to fall apart as the political cost of yet more job cuts and tax hikes takes its toll. So quite possibly Greece will be going to the polls once more before September.