Greek election: Live - Telegraph New context is being shaped in Europe to loosen up the austerity stance. Greece can achieve honourable compromise. 10.30 The Telegraph's Bruno Waterfield from Brussels on this "Greekend": There's trouble on the home front, too, for Angela Merkel. The German Chancellor is facing call from within her own coalition for a referendum in Germany as the price for any further eurozone bailouts. Horst Seehofer, the head of Bavaria's Christian Democrats, told Spiegel magazine that he would demand during elections next year that Germany's constitution needed to be changed to allow popular votes to ratify major EU decisions. If the extent of Germany's financial commitment is widened, then we should ask people for their opinion. The referendum in Ireland has shown that people can handle European issues responsibly. Those who wish Europe well must not be afraid of the population," he said. We should change the constitution so that referendums will in future be made mandatory in three cases: if additional powers are transferred to Brussels; if the EU wants to include new members, and if new aid programmes in the euro crisis are launched. 10.27 Great look at the Greek parties' different programmes can be found on the Ekathimerini website. 10.22 Gerard Lyons, chief economist at Standard Chartered, has told Sky News that the euro has been driven by poilitics, and the economics underpinning it are poor. The euro has to be a political union to survive. He adds that Greece is only 2pc of the euro economy, the country needs growth to make changes and Germany should help Greece. Lyons says Greece lost the confidence of the markets some time ago. Markets less focused on the Greek economy and more on the issue of contagion. He continues: "Greece needs to make changes and collect taxes. Germany does not want to give it a free rise. But key issue is Greece needs growth. The key is Germany and the ECB have the ability to pull Greece and the euro back from the brink. But Germany is prepared to let Greece go. Italy is in a very different and better position to Greece. It has large domestic savings and northern Italy is a dynamic economy. 10.08 Lizzy Davies from The Guardian is in Greece for the elections as well: And Labour MP Peter Hain as tweeted: Faisal Islam at Channel Four News: 10.04 Yiannis Mouzakis at Thompson-Reuters: "Athens polling station, quite busy, majority young crowd." 09.54 Just a little ironic piece of history. The Greeks are voting 49 years to the day since East Germans revolted against socialist-imposed austerity. 09.51 Faisal Islam, economics editor at Channel Four News, is in Greece and getting a bit cocky: 09.46 Mark Lowen, BBC Athens correspondent: We have a great video that revals voters in Greece believe the election result is too close to call. 09.44 France began voting in a parliamentary run-off on Sunday morning that is expected to hand President Francois Hollande's Socialist party a majority and bolster his position in legislative battles over eurozone crisis policy. Opinion polls and projections from last Sunday's first-round vote suggest the Socialist bloc could achieve the 289 seats needed for a majority in the 577-member National Assembly even without adding seats from its Green Party allies. Added to its control of the Senate and the presidency, that would give the Socialist Party more power than it has ever held and should leave Hollande's largely social democratic and pro-Europe cabinet broadly intact. The possible entry of Marine Le Pen's far-right National Front into parliament for the first time since the mid-1980s with up to three seats would be uncomfortable but would not pose any threat to Hollande's power to govern. 09.37 Alex Spillius in Greece: Both Antonis Samaras, leader of New Democracy, and Alexis Tsipras, Syriza leader, have voted. Their quotes and demeanour demonstrated that the young Syriza leader has rocketed to prominence. Surrounded by cameras at an Athens polling station, he said: "We have beaten fear. Today we are opening the gates to hope and a better tomorrow, with our people united, dignified and an equal partner in a Europe which is changing. We are optimistic the future belongs to the bearers of hope. Samaras voted in Pilos, his small home town in the Peleponnese. All he said was: "Today the Greek people are speaking and tomorrow a new era is beginning for Greece." Saving his best for strong-arming Angela Merkel, we can only presume. 09.30 Joseph Weisenthal, deputy editor of Business Insider, is in Greece and has tweeted that little media crews are everywhere: 09.20 Here's Alexis Tsipras casting his vote amid a media scrum: 09.17 Former Greek PM Kostas Karamanlis has voted. But what is strange is that he licked the voting envelope four times when they are self-sealing. 09.15 Robert Nisbet, Sky News Europe Correspondent: 09.13 France wants the European Union to agree before the end of 2012 on growth-boosting measures worth €120bn, the weekly Journal du Dimanche has said, citing a proposal circulated by France ahead of an end-June summit. French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel The €120bn is to come from a combination of short-term growth instruments such as project bonds, reallocated EU structural funds and fresh investment capital from the European Investment Bank. Hollande said the measures should be enlarged upon before the end of 2012 with the creation of a financial transaction tax and measures to create jobs, especially for young people. 09.06 Syriza's Alexis Tsipras is voting. A supporter shouts: Nothing the same from now on. The time has come for the people to speak. There is a key difference in this election. The Greek constitution says that if elections are held within 18 months of the previous ones, the voting method changes. Voters this time around will not be able to pick candidates from their party of choice by putting a cross next to their names. Instead, they will only vote for their party of choice. The parties have allocated the places to their candidates hierarchically, putting the candidates they prefer at the top of their so-called "list." The candidates elected from each party will be determined as a function of what share of the vote their party gets, in the order they were ranked by their leaders. Ballots where voters have put a cross next to candidates" names will be considered invalid. 09.05 Joseph Weisenthal, deputy editor of Business Insider: 09.03 After his side beat Russia to advance in Euro 2012, Greek national football manager Fernando Santos was asked how much modern European civilisation has strayed away from its ancient Greek roots. He replied: "We are inspired by Greek history, not Merkel." 08.54 Alex Spillius, our diplomatic correspondent reporting from Greece, says the country has at last found some euro-joy, though unfortunately it was limited to the sporting arena. Its football team last night unexpectedly and improbably advanced to the knock-out stages of Euro 2012, beating Russia 1-0. Its next match will probably be against Germany, a fixture that so rich in symbolism it hardly needs mentioning. Today's election could of course determine if Greece is later knocked out of the single currency. Polls opened at 7am and close at 7pm (5pm BST). Unofficial exit polls will follow shortly afterwards, with official exit polls at 9.30pm. So by this evening we should know if the next government will be led by centre-Right New Democracy or the radical Leftist coalition Syriza. 08.48 Antonis Samaras, leader of Greece's main conservative party New Democracy, says a "new era" is starting in the country. 08.35 Economist Nouriel Roubini: 08.32 Meanwhile, Greece has appealed to the EU for help... with a fire. A major fire south of the Greek capital raged for the second day on Sunday, as gale-force winds were rekindling the flames and three new fronts broke out. Local officials said several homes had been burned, while three firefighters were injured in the blaze on Saturday. More than 250 firefighters and soldiers using more than 60 vehicles were battling the flames in a sparsely populated area south of Athens, along with four water-dropping planes and a helicopter, the fire department said. Another 45 firefighters and 15 vehicles were being sent from other areas. Greece appealed to the European Union for help. Italy was sending another two water-dropping planes on Sunday morning, Citizens' Protection Minister Eleftherios Economou said. Athens was also awaiting a response from France and Croatia. 08.28 The Telegraph's Alex Spillius, who is reporting from Greece says some headlines from this morning's newspapers in Athens show that the Greeks are not underestimating the significance of today's vote. To Vima's front page declares: "The salvation election: Greeks are voting with an exit from the euro a distinct possibility" Kathemirini says: "With baited breath, the eyes of the whole planet are turned Greece" Real News, a Sunday-only paper, has a poorly sourced report from Brussels claiming that senior EU officials have already agreed ways to ease the terms of Greece's bailout. It reads like a bit of a New Democracy wish-list, but could be true in part. Things like extending the memorandum by a year or two and raising the lowest pension rates - which were slashed - will be on the table. 08.23 Commenting on the elections in Greece, Tristan Cooper, Sovereign Debt Analyst at Fidelity Worldwide Investment, said: Views on the Greek election depend on whether you are playing the short or the long game in the eurozone crisis. A short-term player favours an New Democracy (ND) win as it reduces the chances of an immediate breakdown with the Troika. A long-term player will worry that an ND victory would take the pressure off and lead to continued policy drift at the European level. Although a Syriza win may be more scary for markets and would raise the spectre of a euro exit, it would hold policy-makers" feet to the fire and would improve the prospects for an eventual fiscal union. Whoever wins, the March Troika program will have to be revisited as it is already off-track. The Greek economy contracted by 6.2pc in Q1 and youth unemployment topped 50pc. Indeed, European leaders indicated today that they would offer program concessions to an ND-led government. Further comfort was provided by the ECB and other central banks, which have pledged to cushion shocks emanating from Greece with extra liquidity. 08.13 Meanwhile, French voters are choosing a new parliament today that will determine how far Socialist President Francois Hollande can go with his push for government-sponsored stimulus around Europe. 08.08 Voting is already under way in Greece, in an election that could ultimately decide if the country remains in the euro. New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras, left, and Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras New Democracy, led by Antonis Samaras, and anti-bailout party Syriza, led by Alexis Tsipras, are the frontrunners, but polls suggest the result is too close to call. 08.00 Good morning and welcome to a special Live Blog on the Greek elections.