Supporters of New Democracy.
New Democracy supporters in Athens cheer amid speculation their party will struggle in elections. Photo: AFP
GREEKS vote tomorrow in parliamentary elections in the middle of a recession caused by sharp spending cuts and tax increases.
Both main parties, the conservative New Democracy and the Socialist Pasok, have been damaged by their agreement to European Union and International Monetary Fund-imposed austerity cuts, while more extreme parties have gained support.
Analysts say the two parties together will be fortunate to have enough votes to form a working parliamentary majority. If they fall short, Greece will be thrown into further crisis, piling political chaos on economic pain, and new elections will be required.
''The elections in Greece could turn out to be more important than the elections in France,'' said Daniel Gros, director of the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels.
''The Greeks have a fundamental choice to make: to stay in the euro or not. This is an extremely deep economic and political crisis, and there will be plenty of work for the next government.''
No matter what government emerges in Greece, the persistent question is whether it will enact the changes demanded by its European creditors, or whether, as before, promises will be half-kept or ignored.
As politicians fight to get elected, Greeks are struggling to take care of themselves, even returning to a barter economy. Sitting in the shade of a mulberry tree in a market square of Volos, a city on the Aegean coast 320 kilometres north of Athens, Eleni Boubouli sells dried wild herbs. She picks them from Mount Olympus and other peaks.
The stall is her way of piecing together a living that includes teaching English and yoga with some support from her retired parents.
''You really need to think about survival now, really think,'' she says. ''Our situation is so bad, I don't know how to describe it.''
Like many Greeks, she feels the economic maelstrom that has engulfed the country will only get worse. The parliamentary election inspires no confidence that the storm will be calmed.
Rather than wait for the political class to improve, Greeks are taking their future into their own hands in ways that involve reversion to the past. Bartering and exchange schemes that eliminate the euro are popping up throughout the country. Farmers are avoiding supermarkets and selling directly to customers at substantial discounts. And in a reverse of decades of urban migration, there is strong evidence people are leaving Athens to return to the provinces where they or their parents were raised, to live off the land, find menial work or live without the debts that city life entails.
Ms Boubouli does accept euros but also TEM, the Greek acronym for Local Alternative Unit, a coupon scheme that allows members to exchange services and products. Volos is one of 10 areas using the scheme, with 10 more about to start.
Ms Boubouli recently used 30 TEMs to pay for legal advice from Elena Dimitriou, a lawyer, who in turn used the coupons for piano lessons, an electrician and food at a market for TEM-friendly producers.
''The scheme gives me some protection from this crisis,'' says Mrs Dimitriou. ''With TEM I can purchase things that I just couldn't afford any more because business is so bad.''
Another member is Katya Larisaiou, 35, who accepts the coupons at the Petit Fleur, a pretty, pastel-coloured cafe she owns. ''Someone said to me that all this bartering is going back 150 years, and I know what he meant. But we have to go backwards to figure out where we should be going,'' she says.
NEW YORK TIMES, TELEGRAPH