What crisis? Greeks in the street proud of what they have achieved at the ballot box Greeks heavily punished the traditional ruling parties, Pasok and New Democracy, for supporting a 110 billion bail-out to save it from bankruptcy and the austerity that Brussels and Berlin decreed should accompany it. Minor parties from the Left and Right who opposed the recovery plan triumphed, making the formation of a coalition government highly problematic. The bail-out and Greece's membership of the euro have been thrown into jeopardy, but Mr Diamodis is not alone in thinking that order can come out of the chaos ensuing from Sunday's polls. "Greeks are crazy in a way," said Leonidas Antonakopoulos, sitting in a café enjoying an afternoon coffee. "Most want to stay in euro but don't like what it takes to stay in Europe," he said, referring to the bail-out. A recent Gallup poll indeed showed that 72 per cent of Greeks wanted to stay in the single currency. "As you say in England, they want their pie and to eat it too," interjected his friend Constantinos, a civil servant. This might sound like a contradiction, but maybe it is not. Greeks voted for a renegotiation of their debt. It may be realistic, it may be not. We shall see," added Mr Antonakopoulos. Greek politicians and members of the public alike are hoping that their creditors will see that their strictly monetarist medicine is killing the patient. The election of Francois Hollande in France has given them encouragement that the "pro-growth" view will gain more traction. "This crisis is so volatile that things can change," said Meletios Stavrakis, who works for the EU in Luxembourg but came home to vote. There are other struggling economies like Portugal and Spain and attitudes may change. Negotiations always depend on who is around the table. Yiannis Papayiannou, leaving a shift at the Hotel Amalia near the square, was indifferent about which currency his country used. Personally I don't care if we're in the euro or if we go back to the drachma. We have natural resources that have not been used. If we move in the right political direction it doesn't matter what coins we use. A mixture of anger, defiance and national pride led many voters away from the monoliths of the political scene. Mr Papayiannou, 47, opted for Independent Greeks, a breakaway party from New Democracy that was only formed a few months ago but won 10 per cent of the vote. Mr Diamodis voted for Syriza, the Leftwing coalition that stunned even its supporters by finishing second. Asked why Greeks should not pay for their mistakes, he said the politicians, not the people were to blame for running up debt. He maintained his country was not asking to live by different rules from the Germans or the French. But he admitted: "We have the sun, we work at a different rate, because we are different people. You can't compare the two.