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Supporters of Alexis Tsipras leader of the radical left main opposition party Syriza celebrate after the initial election results for Greece general elections in Athens, Greece, 25 January 2015. (Photo: Elecciones, Grecia, Atenas) |
Europe's leftist parties and their supporters are cheering Monday.
Just hours after claiming victory in national elections,
Alexis Tsipras, head of the leftist Syriza party and the new Prime
Minister-elect of Greece, has agreed to form a coalition government and
repeated his vows to push swiftly ahead with the promised economic
reforms that fueled his party's historic win.
Tsipras was formally sworn-in as Prime Minister in Athens on Monday afternoon. "We have an uphill road ahead," Tsipras told President Karolos Papoulias just before the ceremony.
Failing to win an outright majority in Parliament, winning 149 seats
of the 151 needed, Tsipras earlier on Monday held a meeting with Panos
Kammenos, leader of the Greek Independent party. Following their
discussion, Kammenos emerged and confirmed the coalition. According to
media reports, Kammenos said, "The Independent Greeks give our vote of confidence to the prime minister, Alexis Tsipras."
"I want to say, simply, that from this moment, there is a
government," Kammenos added. "The prime minister will go to the
president and … the cabinet makeup will be announced by the prime
minister. The aim for all Greeks is to embark on a new day, with full
sovereignty."
Known as a center-right party that espouses a virulent populism and a
shared disgust towards the austerity imposed from without, the Greek
Independents took approximately 4.7 percent of the national vote and
their seats will allow Syriza to rule without bowing to other rival
parties. As the Washington Post notes, the two parties "have
virtually nothing in common beyond their shared antipathy for the
stringent terms of the country’s $284 billion bailouts."
Though the reactions from across Europe were predictably mixed, progressives from all quarters were found celebrating Syriza's impressive showing at the polls.
"The result of the Greek election is a resounding rejection of the
austerity policies that have had devastating economic and social
consequences," said Costas Panayotakis, professor of sociology at the
New York City College of Technology of the City University of New York.
"Having received over 35 percent of the vote, Syriza, Greece's leading
party of the anti-austerity left, is poised to form a government in
coalition with a smaller party of the anti-austerity right and to
challenge the austerity policies imposed throughout the eurozone. In so
doing, the Greek election could prove an important turning point,
further fueling the rise of anti-austerity forces of the left in Spain,
Ireland and beyond."
Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman called the election
results a "political earthquake" for Europe as he expressed hope it
would help end the "nightmare" of austerity for the Greek people. He
also urged Syriza to ignore those calling for the party to scale back
its plan to re-negotiate the terms of its economic relationship with the
so-called Troika—the IMF, the European Commission, and the European
Central Bank.
According to Krugman:
So now that Mr.
Tsipras has won, and won big, European officials would be well advised
to skip the lectures calling on him to act responsibly and to go along
with their program. The fact is they have no credibility; the program
they imposed on Greece never made sense. It had no chance of working.
If
anything, the problem with Syriza’s plans may be that they’re not
radical enough. Debt relief and an easing of austerity would reduce the
economic pain, but it’s doubtful whether they are sufficient to produce a
strong recovery. On the other hand, it’s not clear what more any Greek
government can do unless it’s prepared to abandon the euro, and the
Greek public isn’t ready for that.
Still, in calling for a major
change, Mr. Tsipras is being far more realistic than officials who want
the beatings to continue until morale improves. The rest of Europe
should give him a chance to end his country’s nightmare.
Reuters reports:
Tsipras said he would cooperate with fellow euro zone
leaders for "a fair and mutually beneficial solution" but said the Greek
people came first. "Our priority from the very first day will be to
deal with the big wounds left by the crisis," he said. "Our foremost
priority is that our country and our people regain their lost dignity."
He
has promised to keep Greece in the euro and has toned down some of his
rhetoric but his arrival in power would mark the biggest challenge yet
to the approach adopted to the crisis by euro zone governments.
Syriza's
victory is likely to encourage other anti-austerity parties which are
winning support across Europe, such as the Podemos movement in Spain.
The idea that Syriza's victory in Greece would create opportunity for other leftist parties on the continent was widely shared.
"The Greek people have clearly rejected the EU's neoliberal economic experiments," said
Pernille Skipper, a policymaker and spokesperson for Green-Red Alliance
in Denmark. "The Greeks have said no, that ordinary people should not
have to foot the bill for the financial crisis. It should inspire people
in other European countries."
In Spain, Pablo Iglesias, a vocal ally of Tsipras and head of the nascent leftist Podemos Party, said
the victory for Syriza in Greece portends more victories for those
calling for a social and economic re-ordering. "Hope is coming, fear is
fleeing," he said of the shift in Greece. "We are hoping we will
hear the same thing in Spain soon."
And in France, Jean-Luc Melenchon, perhaps the nation's most prominent far-left politician described his response to Syriza's win as "pure happiness."
"This is a new page for Europe. Maybe we can take the opportunity to
rebuild Europe, which has become the federal Europe of the liberals,"
Mélenchon told BFM TV. "The Greeks are trying to break out of this
straight jacket and thanks to them, maybe we will be able to lay out all
the figures on the table, that has made life hellish in Europe."
Source: CommonDreams |