“I remember from my acquaintances and friends in other countries that they had the right to vote and I was jealous. I also want to take advantage of the new opportunity and vote at least from abroad”. This is the opinion of the young teacher Vangelis Tsiaplis, born and raised in Germany, who will vote this year for the first time on German soil for the Greek elections. As he tells DW, although he lives and works in Germany, he maintains inseparable ties with Greece and is one of the most active members of the Greek community in Berlin. Vangelis Tsiaplis wants to contribute with his vote to the political events in Greece. That is why, as he told us, he was happy to be registered in the electoral rolls abroad through the relevant website of the Ministry of the Interior. “For me, the process was probably easier because it was done electronically. But I think for the elderly it was more complicated,” he observes.

Under the new law, voters who have lived in Greece for at least two years in the last 35 years and have submitted the last two years’ tax return, even if it is zero, have the right to be registered in the electoral rolls abroad. In order to certify residence in Greece, specific public documents are required, such as a certificate of school or university attendance, a certificate of payment of insurance contributions in Greece or a certificate of enlistment. These are criteria, which many Greeks in Germany, especially of the older generations, did not manage or managed after difficulty to collect in order to vote, according to Panagiotis Matlis, president of the Greek community in Berlin. About 25,000 Greeks live in Berlin, together with the wider area of ​​Brandenburg.

“It is undoubtedly an unprecedented, nice process for the Greeks abroad. Of course there is also bitterness from the old Greeks of the village. About 2/3 of Greeks in Germany cannot vote because they do not fall under the conditions of the law, especially at the age of 35” observes Panagiotis Matlis. “There is general disappointment. Few will go to Greece to vote, others, mainly newcomers, are indifferent, they have thrown a black stone. But also the applications of some Greeks who have come in the last seven years, were rejected by the electronic system for various technical reasons”, says Panagiotis Matlis.

The numeracy and geography of the vote in Germany

According to official aggregate data, a total of approximately 3,326 voters have been registered in Germany’s electoral rolls (the Greek residents of Germany are estimated at around half a million, according to the latest census of the German statistical office).

Most of them have been registered in Berlin (679) and Munich (627). The third German city in a row is Frankfurt (405). In the last places one finds cities such as Aachen with 56 registered voters and finally Bielefeld with 43.

In Germany on Saturday, 17 polling centers will be open: from the Berlin Embassy, ​​to individual consular authorities, Greek-language schools or Greek communities in various German cities with a Greek population – in addition to the aforementioned, in Dusseldorf, Cologne, Dortmund, Stuttgart and elsewhere.

Those who will vote and those who have a different opinion

Be that as it may, among Greeks living in Germany, the elections in Greece and the vote of expatriates are a topic of discussion in groups. There are many trends in Germany as well. Those who want and can vote, those who want but cannot vote, either because they were excluded from the process, or because they work or live far from polling stations. Those who will prefer a mini “electoral escape” to Greece, those – mainly young people – who consciously abstain for political reasons or simply do not want to vote for the Greek elections.

“I definitely want to vote. I will vote in Berlin. Of course I am influenced by the developments in Greece” says Dimitris Argyriou, a young director originally from Kavala who has been living and working in Berlin since 2008. “If things are going well or badly in Greece, this is also reflected in my life in Germany . A positive Greek measure of Greece, for example the renewal of passports for ten years, also affects my own life as a citizen of the world with a Greek passport. Since then I have family in Greece. The changes in the pension and employment affect her. Anyway, I go back and forth every three months to Greece. I vote with the long-term survival of the Greek society and economy in mind,” Dimitris Argyriou says, noting: “In Greece, I would like the treatment of freelancers to change and to be given more incentives.”

But there is also the other opinion among a large portion of the Greeks in Germany. More pragmatic, which of course has its own logic. “I do not vote in the Greek elections, I have no right. But even if I had, I don’t think I would vote. I believe that people should vote where they live,” says Efi Bikaki, educator and president of the German-Greek Society of Düsseldorf, capital of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous German state with a strong Greek element. “I vote in Germany, I have two citizenships, but I consider that my interests are in Germany and I want to decide here on the future of the country in which I live. I don’t work, I don’t live in Greece. So I have no opinion and experience on the social and political reality of Greece”, notes Efi Bikaki.