Katerina Georgiou, 64, who used to own a private school, says that she is scared when it comes to deciding who to vote for in Sunday's general election. Fear that her pension, already cut, will be cut some more. Fear that Greek banks will collapse. Fear that if she makes the wrong choice, Greece will be thrown out of the European Union. "Everyone is scared," she said recently.

"All of our friends are afraid and taking away their money out of the bank, keeping it I don't know where. We don't have any left, so we aren't doing that." After five years in which the country's economy has shrunk by 25% and the number of jobless has risen far beyond what its creditors ever predicted, many Greeks, like Georgiou, say they are struggling to keep fear at bay as they go to the polls for the third national election in three years.