Syriza and Independent Greeks agree Greece coalition

BBC News ^ | 1/26/2015 | BBC

[Nextrush]

The far-left Syriza party, the winner of Greece's election, has formed an anti-austerity coalition with a right-wing party, the Greek Independents.

Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras has taken the oath of office as the new prime minister.

He has vowed to renegotiate Greece's bailout, worth 240 bn euros (179 bn pounds, $268 bn).

European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker congratulated Mr. Tsipras while reminding him of the challenge of "ensuring fiscal responsibility."..........

With nearly all of the votes counted in Sunday's poll, Syriza looks set to have 149 seats, just two short of an absolute majority. The Greek Independents are projected to have 13 seats in the 300-seat parliament....

Sunday's result means that a majority of voters in Greece have essentially rejected a core policy for dealing with the Eurozone crisis as devised by Brussels and Germany, the BBC's Gavin Hewitt in Athens says.....

[goldstategop]

Its a challenge to and a repudiation of neoliberal orthodoxy.

This is an answer to unfettered capitalism and governmental catering to the market.

And its also a rejection of “cartel politics” and insider deals that leave the vast majority of people worse off.

Austerity was never going to be viable for long because making people suffer for nothing is not a winning political strategy.

Angela Merkel and the Germans were too clever for their own good: they basically destroyed the underpinnings of the moderate left-wing and right-wing political parties in Greece and gave the fringe left plenty of room to grow.

One can’t help but wonder whether Germany’s CDU is really Germany’s Left Party in disguise.