Greece and Portugal are among the European countries most affected by the International financial crisis that began in the US (2007) but soon had very severe consequences also in Europe, with the so-called debt crisis and euro crisis. Namely, both Greece (2009) and Portugal (2011) were obliged to request loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and/or the European Union to deal with the debt crisis and with financial disequilibrium in public finances. Greece is in a severe recession for around five years now, and Portugal has been in recession since 2011, but especially in 2012. However, the way to deal with these situations politically has been described, namely in the national and international mass media, to be very different in Greece and Portugal. Namely, mass protests have been said to have been much more frequent, violent and widespread in Greece than in Portugal. Moreover, political consensus in Portugal (between the Centre-left, PS: Socialist Party, and the right-wing government, by the liberal PSD and the conservative CDS-PP) have been said to have been very different vis-à-vis the higher levels of political polarization in Greece (between the Centre-left, PASOK, and the Centre-right, ND, with a notable upsurge in the radical left, Syriza and Democratic Left, and the radical right). Using data concerning both MPs (PARENEL survey), and Prospective MPs/Candidates surveys (CCS survey), and Voters (Hellenic National Election Study/ELNES; Portuguese «Elections, Leadership and Accountability» Research Project) which for both Greece and Portugal included a specific battery of questions concerning the “economic crisis”, we will try to see in what extent is the situation different in Greece and Portugal by relating elites’ and voters’ attitudes towards the bailout agreements with the Troika, the austerity policies and their effects in both countries, and how those attitude correlate with elites’ and voters’ ideological and partisan attachments, as well as with attitudes concerning other relevant and related topics.
