ATHENS, Greece — Greece’s Socialists trounced the governing conservatives in a landslide election Sunday, with voters angered by scandals and a faltering economy ousting Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis halfway through his second term.
Humbled by his New Democracy Party’s worst electoral performance ever, Karamanlis, 53, resigned as its leader.
George Papandreou, 57, now follows in the footsteps of his father, Andreas Papandreou, who founded his Panhellenic Socialist Movement party, or PASOK, and grandfather and namesake George Papandreou, both of whom served several terms as prime ministers.
“We bear a great responsibility to change the course of the country. . . . We know that we can make it,” Papandreou, a former foreign minister, told supporters lighting flares and waving PASOK flags.
Results from 87.65 percent of votes counted showed PASOK winning with 43.93 percent, compared with 34.03 percent for New Democracy. Turnout was at 70.44 percent.
Voting is compulsory in Greece, but penalties for failing to vote are no longer enforced.
The result gives PASOK a solid majority of 160 seats in the 300-member parliament, bringing the party back to power after five years of conservative governance.
Papandreou’s victory, along with a recent win by socialists in Portugal, bucks a European trend that has seen a conservative surge in the powerhouse economies, most recently in Germany, where Chancellor Angela Merkel won re-election last week.
