European Union Election Timeline From Papandreou to Hollande

Following is a timeline of changes in European governments from the election of Greece’s Pasok Party in October 2009 to votes in France, Germany, Greece and Italy yesterday and key dates for bailouts.

2009
Oct. 4:  George Papandreou leads Socialist Pasok Party to
landslide victory in Greek elections, beating New Democracy by
the widest victory margin since 1981 on pledges to boost
spending and wages.


2010
April 12: Euro-area finance ministers agree to provide as much
as 30 billion euros ($39 billion) of loans to Greece over the
next year with the International Monetary Fund agreeing to put
up another 15 billion euros.

April 23: Papandreou asks EU for a 45 billion-euro bailout from
the European Union and the IMF.

May 2: Euro region agrees on a 110 billion-euro rescue package
for Greece. Greece agrees to 30 billion euros in austerity
measures over the next three years in exchange for the aid.

May 9-10: EU finance chiefs agree to set up a 750 billion-euro
rescue mechanism for countries facing financial distress and the
European Central Bank said it will buy government and private
debt in the biggest attempt yet to end the sovereign-debt
crisis.

May 9: German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic
Union suffers its worst result since World War II in North
Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, a result that
cost her control of the upper house, where the where the states
are represented.

May 18: Greece receives its first bailout loan for 14.5 billion
euros, one day before 8.5 billion euros in bonds come due.

June 13: Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico’s government fails to
win a second term after voters, frustrated with corruption and
rising debt, gave a majority to opposition parties.

Nov. 28: Ireland gets 85 billion-euro bailout. European leaders
scale back proposals to inflict losses on bondholders.

2011
Feb. 20: Merkel’s CDU loses control of Hamburg, Germany’s
richest state, in the first of seven state elections in 2011.

Feb. 25: Ireland holds general election, with the ruling Fianna
Fail swept from power in the worst result in its history.

March 23: Portugal’s Prime Minister Jose Socrates resigns after
opposition rejects austerity package.

March 27: Merkel’s coalition is defeated in Baden-Wuerttemberg,
which her CDU had controlled since 1952, as support for the
Greens surged to a record.

April 6: Socrates, in charge of a caretaker government, requests
an EU bailout for Portugal.

April 17: True Finns, who oppose euro bailouts, win 19 percent
of the vote in Finnish elections.

May 16: Finance ministers approve Portugal’s 78 billion-euro
bailout.

May 22: Spain’s ruling Socialists suffer worst local election
defeat in 30 years.

June 5: Social Democratic and People’s Party win majority in
Portuguese election, routing Socrates’s Socialists.

July 21: EU summit passes second bailout package for Greece.

Sept. 20: The government of Slovenia’s Prime Minister Borut
Pahor loses a confidence vote.

Nov. 6: Papandreou agrees to step aside to make way for a
government of national unity.

Nov. 11: Lucas Papademos, a former ECB vice president is sworn
in as prime minister of a Greek unity government.

Nov. 12: Silvio Berlusconi resigns after Italian lawmakers pass
debt-reduction measures. Former European Commissioner Mario
Monti prepares to lead a technical government charged with
implementing the austerity measures.

Nov. 20: People’s Party leader Mariano Rajoy wins the biggest
parliamentary majority in a Spanish election in more than a
quarter-century.

Dec. 4: Zoran Jankovic, the mayor of the Slovenian capital
Ljubljana, wins an upset electoral victory and will form a new
government.


2012
Jan. 11: Slovenian lawmakers reject Jankovic as premier.

Jan. 28: Slovenia’s parliament nominates Janez Jansa as the next
prime minister.

Feb. 10: Slovenian lawmakers approve Jansa’s new government.

Feb. 21: Euro-area finance ministers reach agreement on a
second bailout package for Greece.

March 10: Slovakia’s Smer party, led by former Premier Robert
Fico, wins a parliamentary election.

April 4: Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic appoints a new
government led by Fico’s “pro-European” administration.

April 23: Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte submits his
resignation after failing to win parliamentary support for
additional budget cuts needed to steer the Netherlands clear of
the debt crisis.

May 6: Francois Hollande defeats French President Nicolas
Sarkozy, becoming the first Socialist in 17 years to control
Europe’s second-biggest economy.

May 6: Greece’s Socialist Pasok and New Democracy parties, which
partnered in securing a second rescue package, came in two seats
short of the 151 seats needed to win a majority. Voters turned
to anti-bailout parties, calling into question the country’s
ability to impose the measures needed to guarantee its future in
the euro. Syriza, a coalition of leftist parties that has vowed
to scrap the bailout terms, got 17 percent and has 52 seats as
the second-biggest party, boosting its showing from the 2009
election nearly four-fold.

May 6: Merkel’s CDU wins 30.9 of the vote in the Northern German
state of Schleswig-Holstein, its worst election result since
1950, setting the tone for a bigger contest on May 13 in North
Rhine-Westphalia. The main opposition Social Democratic Party
has retained power or entered coalition governments in every
state it’s contested since Merkel’s second term began in
September 2009.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Jennifer M. Freedman in Geneva at jfreedman@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net