Greek elections - the view from the ground

29 April 2012: "Greek Socialist Pasok party's leader Evangelos Venizelos delivers a speech during a pre-election rally in Thessaloniki, seeking to overturn stiff odds at the election, just over a month after helping to wipe out nearly a third of the country's huge debt" Photograph: alexandros_M / Flickr Photograph: Alexandros Michailidis/Flickr " For Pasok and New Democracy party , participation in a pro-austerity coalition government has whittled away at their electoral base. For the first time in a generation, they are faced with the real prospect of not being able to form a government, either on their own or together. Instead of adoration and cheers, party officials are often met with jeers and sometimes yoghurt thrown by disgruntled voters, disgusted with austerity policies. For many the 6 May national elections will mark the end of an era begun in the 1970s, in which Pasok and New Democracy dominated national politics. It promises to usher in a newer, more volatile chapter in public life in Greece " Photograph: teacherdudebbq2 / Flickr Photograph: teacherdudebbq2/Flickr 2 May 2012: " Panos Kammenos, leader of the Independent Greeks gives a pre-election speech in Thessaloniki" Photograph: Konstantinos Tsakalidis Photograph: Konstantinos Tsakalidis/Flickr " Beggar . Since the first memorandum vote and the introduction of austerity measures, more and more people now live on the street. The number of desperate, unemployed, homeless and/or drug addicted people has increased. The economic crisis has become a social crisis" Photograph: Gael Michaud / Flickr Photograph: Gael Michaud/Flickr 30 April 2012, Constitution Square. " Graffiti from the “Ι don't pay” movement , in front of the place where, a month earlier, a pensioner pharmacist committed suicide" Photograph: dimitrisalexakis / Flickr Photograph: Dimitris Alexakis/Flickr 3 May 2012: " Waiting at a bus stop in the centre of Athens , an African immigrant looks at the political advertisement of one of the two far right parties" Photograph: dimitrisalexakis / Flickr Photograph: Dimitris Alexakis/Flickr We Versus The People - Greek election campaign 2012 . "The picture shows how much of the current Greek political scene has changed since the last national elections in 2009. At that time, a rally by a major political figure would have taken place in Thessaloniki's central Aristotelous Square with the place full of party supporters bussed in from all over northern Greece. The security needed would have been more low key and the adoring public would have been allowed to approach and even talk to their leaders. This is no longer possible for most of the country's most political elite and instead of adoration, party stalwarts like Pasok's's Evangelos Venizelos are reduced to ever more convoluted ways of appearing popular - whilst hiding behind layer upon layer of security" Photograph: teacherdudebbq2 / Flickr Photograph: teacherdudebbq2/Flickr