Greece: Conservatives win Greek election with promise to revive economy, unseating leftist Syriza

Conservatives are returning to power in Greece after defeating the leftist ruling party, which failed in its pledge to fight austerity. Now New Democracy offers more jobs and less taxes for austerity-weary Greeks.

The party of opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis has claimed 39.74 percent of the vote, with Syriza trailing on 31.5 percent, the Interior Ministry said, after counting nearly 45 percent of the vote in the snap election.

If nothing changes significantly, New Democracy would claim between 155 and 167 seats in the 300-member parliament, which would enable it to form a government without political complications.

The turnout in the election was estimated at around 55 percent, which was blamed on the hot weather, as temperatures reached over 40 degrees in some parts of the country.

Syriza, which had been in the driving seat since 2015, has acknowledged its defeat, with Alexis Tsipras calling Mitsotakis to congratulate him.

“Today, with our head held high we accept the people’s verdict. To bring Greece to where it is today, we had to take difficult decisions (with) a heavy political cost,” the outgoing PM told the journalists.

Read more at: Conservatives win Greek election with promise to revive economy, unseating leftist Syriza — RT World News

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Greek election live: Alexis Tsipras celebrates victory - as it happened

With most of the ballot papers counted, Syriza is leading with a 35.5% share of the vote compared with 28.2% for the centre-right New Democracy party. Speaking in Athens, Tsipras declared the election a victory for the people. “This victory belongs to the people and those who dream of a better tomorrow and we’ll achieve it with hard work,” he said.

Jubilant supporters, clearly relieved at the result, took to the streets in celebration, with many singing and dancing outside Syriza’s main election marquee in central Athens.

Tsipras told supporters that he would tackle endemic corruption in the country. “The mandate that the Greek people have given is is a crystal clear mandate to get rid of the regime of corruption and vested issues,” he said. “We will show how effective we will be. We will make Greece a stronger place for the weak and vulnerable, a fairer place.”

Read more:Greek election live: Alexis Tsipras celebrates victory - as it happened | World news | The Guardian

Greece PM Tsipras reshuffles government after rebellion

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has made changes to his government, removing ministers who voted against reforms necessary for a rescue deal. Nine changes were made overall.

The reshuffle on Friday came two days after a rebellion in Tsipras' left-wing Syriza party forced him to rely on opposition votes to pass a reform package in return for talks on a third international bailout for his debt-stricken country.

Tsipras replaced Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis, one of the rebels, with former Labor Minister Panos Skourletis, whose position will be taken by George Katrougalos, formerly Administrative Reforms Minister.
Skourletis is a close ally of Tsipras.

The deputy minister of defense, who was close to Lafazanis, was also removed from the post, to be replaced by Christoforos Vernardakis, an academic.

The prime minister also named Trifon Alexiadis deputy finance minister, replacing Nadia Valavani, who stepped down ahead of the vote earlier this week.

The crucial portfolio of finance minister will be kept by Euclid Tsakalotos, who took over the position on July 6 after the former holder, Yanis Varoufakis, resigned.

The new members of the cabinet are scheduled to be sworn in on Saturday.

 Read more: Greece PM Tsipras reshuffles government after rebellion | News | DW.COM | 17.07.2015

Euro zone ministers demand more from Greece for loan talks - by Andreas Rinke and Francesco Guarascio

Skeptical euro zone finance ministers demanded on Saturday that Greece go beyond painful austerity measures accepted by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras if he wants them to open negotiations on a third bailout for his bankrupt country to keep it in the euro.

Ministers lined up to vent their anger at Tsipras on arrival at their umpteenth emergency weekend meeting on Greece's acute debt crisis, with Athens staring into an economic abyss when financial markets reopen on Monday unless it wins fresh aid.

EU officials forecast a deal would be reached by the end of the weekend to keep Greece afloat, but two sources said there was consensus among the other 18 ministers that the leftist government in Athens must take further steps to convince them it would honor any new debts.

Tsipras won parliamentary backing early on Saturday for a tough reform package that largely mirrored measures previously demanded by its international creditors but rejected by Greek voters at his behest in a referendum last Sunday.

Wolfgang Schaeuble, finance minister of its biggest creditor Germany and a stickler for the EU's fiscal rules, said negotiations would be "exceptionally difficult".

Emerging optimism about Greece had been "destroyed in an incredible way in the last few months" since Tsipras won power, Schaeuble said.

A German newspaper reported that his ministry was suggesting that Greece either improve its proposals quickly and transfer state assets worth 50 billion euros into a fund to pay down debt, or take a five-year "time-out" from the euro zone.

Read more: Euro zone ministers demand more from Greece for loan talks | Reuters

Greece debt crisis: Tsipras announces bailout referendum

Is the party over for Greece?

Greece will hold a referendum on 5 July on a controversial bailout deal with foreign creditors, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has announced. 

In a televised address, he described the plan as "humiliation" and condemned "unbearable" austerity measures demanded by creditors.

The Greek government earlier rejected the proposals, aimed at avoiding the country defaulting on its debt.

Greece has to make a €1.5bn ($1.7bn; £1.06bn) IMF debt repayment on 30 June.

In the speech, Mr Tsipras said: "These proposals, which clearly violate the European rules and the basic rights to work, equality and dignity show that the purpose of some of the partners and institutions was not a viable agreement for all parties, but possibly the humiliation of an entire people."

"The people must decide free of any blackmail," he added.

Read more: Greece debt crisis: Tsipras announces bailout referendum - BBC News

Greek leader assails 'absurd proposals' from European creditors - by Steven Zeitchik

A day after ‎the Syriza-led Greek government acknowledged it couldn't reach a deal with European creditors, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras took to the airwaves to sound a defiant note on the failed talks.

In a nationally televised address to Parliament on Friday evening‎, Tsipras rebuffed the European Commission and the German-led creditors who hold much of Greece's debt.

"The government is not going to give in to absurd proposals," he told lawmakers in Athens. This is "a bad negotiating trick."

Greece is seeking a debt restructuring that would alleviate the burden of its massive financial obligations and release about $8 billion in previously agreed-upon bailout funds, in turn preventing a default and potential exit from the euro currency.

The German-led creditors are refusing to meet Greece's demands until the country makes promises of more austerity and labor reform.


Read more: Greek leader assails 'absurd proposals' from European creditors - LA Times

Greece and Its Creditors Agree on Some Measures in Bailout Talks - by Gabriele Steinhauser and Nektaria Stamouli

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his country’s international creditors were able to agree on some aspects of a financing deal at a meeting Wednesday night, but differences remain on some key issues, European officials said Thursday.

“The next hours, the next days…are absolutely essential,” said Pierre Moscovici, the European Union’s economics commissioner. “I would say I’m optimistic.”

The Greek leader is now scheduled to meet with Mr. Juncker again “in coming days,” Mr. Juncker’s spokesman Margaritis Schinas said. “They agreed to meet again, intense work will continue.”
Officials warned that Greece and its creditors still have issues to resolve before a deal is struck.

Read more: Greece and Its Creditors Agree on Some Measures in Bailout Talks - WSJ

Greece: Seeking compromise deal, Greece warns it might skip IMF payment - by Karolina Tagaris and Deepa Babington

Greece's international creditors signaled on Wednesday they were ready to compromise to avert a debt default even as Athens warned it might skip an IMF loan repayment due this week.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras visits Brussels later on Wednesday to see senior European officials, where he is expected to hear the terms of the plan drawn up this week at a meeting of top leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

With time running out, and looking to draw a line under months of acrimonious negotiations, the creditors have effectively come up with a take-it-or-leave-it offer.

However, Tsipras has produced a plan of his own and said he intended to discuss this document in Brussels, calling on euro zone partners to show some "realism" and urging a deal that would let Greece escape from "economic asphyxiation".

Read more: Seeking compromise deal, Greece warns it might skip IMF payment | Reuters

EU politics: Europe’s populist parties aren’t done by a long shot - by Eric Reguly

If there were a single image that summed up the quick rise of Europe’s anti-establishment parties, is was the one of Alexis Tsipras and Pablo Iglesias together, on stage, at an anti-austerity rally in Athens just before the Jan. 25 Greek election. Wearing their trademark open-neck blue shirts – no neckties ever for them – their arms were outstretched, as if in celebration, as the crowd cheered them on.

Mr. Tsipras, the leader of the radical left Syriza party, would win that election; Mr. Iglesias, leader of Podemos (We Can), the Spanish equivalent to Syriza, would top the polls in Spain, much to the distress of the mainstream parties.

The image implied that the populist revolution had arrived in Europe, where the centre-right and centre-left parties that had ruled for decades were in full retreat as voters grew angry at the stalled recovery, the harsh austerity measures and the obscene unemployment levels.

But could January have been the peak of the populist movement? Shortly thereafter, Syriza was riven by infighting as its efforts to make a breakthrough with its bailout masters in Brussels and Berlin went nowhere. Podemos’s rise stalled as spring approached. In Britain, the UK Independence Party, whose goal is to yank Britain out of the European Union, won only one seat in the May 7 election; even UKIP’s leader, Nigel Farage, got shut out. Beppe Grillo’s anti-establishment Five Star Movement, Italy’s biggest opposition party, lost momentum. While the Euroskeptic Finns Party placed second in Finland’s election, their vote tally fell by two points.

Investors have applauded the apparently flattening popularity curve of the protest parties. Bond yields, with a little help from the European Central Bank’s ultra-easy monetary policy, have sunk throughout the euro zone. The rage against the middle-party machine seemed less shrill as the economy improved. The falling euro and oil prices, and the ECBs €1.1-trillion ($1.3-trillion) quantitative easing program, helped.

Not so fast. Rumors that the populist surge is over might be exaggerated, greatly so.

Read more: Europe’s populist parties aren’t done by a long shot - The Globe and Mail

Greece- EU crisis talks end with Greek reform pledge - "but patience of EU could be running out"

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras assured European Union creditors at late-night crisis talks in Brussels that his leftist-led coalition would soon present a full set of economic reforms in order to unlock cash to stave off bankruptcy.

After two months of mounting frustration on both sides since Tsipras was elected with a mandate to end years of austerity imposed by creditors’ conditions, the three-hour meeting on the sidelines of an EU summit was requested by Tsipras to break an impasse that risks seeing Athens stumble out of the euro zone.

But while a joint statement by the EU institutions spoke of a “spirit of mutual trust” and Tsipras said he left feeling more optimistic, German Chancellor Angela Merkel stressed no money would be released before Athens implements budget measures and other reforms that it has so far been reluctant to consent to.

Note EU-Digest: patience in the EU could be running out if Greece is not able or willing to understand that their economy is completely riddled as a result of a top heavy and overpaid civil service sector, corruption at every level, a tax system which does not work and a government which believes they can "call the shots" on the rest of Europe. Greece better wake-up and smell the roses.

Read more on Greece Europe - EU crisis talks end with Greek reform pledge - France 24

EU's Juncker wants to scrap troika's mission to Greece - by James Mackenzie

EU Commission President Jean Claude Juncker

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker wants to scrap the troika mission from international lenders that governs Greece's 320 billion euros (240 billion pounds) bailout, German daily Handelsblatt reported, quoting unnamed Commission sources.

"We have to find an alternative quickly," it quoted the sources as saying, in an extract from an article released ahead of publication on Monday.
EU
Berlin was also prepared to reform arrangements between the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Athens, seen by its new government as "insulting" to Greek sovereignty, and establish more general economic targets, the paper quoted unnamed German government sources as saying.

However, this would only be possible if Greece accepted the need to stick to previously agreed reform and savings targets, the business newspaper said.

The new left-wing government of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has said it wants to end the bailout deal and will not cooperate with troika inspectors in Athens.

It says it wants to negotiate directly with European authorities and the IMF over a new accord that will allow a reduction in its debt, which is equivalent to more than 175 percent of its gross domestic product.
Juncker, who is due to meet Tsipras in Brussels on Wednesday, has said he was not prepared to accept any direct write-off of Greece's public debt.


Read more: EU's Juncker wants to scrap troika's mission to Greece - Handelsblatt | Reuters

Greece’s anti-austerity drive gets boost from Washington

Greece’s new government received welcome support from US President Barack Obama on Sunday for its efforts to loosen austerity programmes amid tough rhetoric from its European creditors.

The leftist government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is in a race against time to secure greater leeway from its European partners as it seeks to deliver on a campaign pledge to reverse the belt-tightening measures stifling Greece's economy.

Its European charm offensive got a much-needed boost from across the Atlantic on Sunday as the White House warned that imposing tough austerity programmes on Greece could backfire on its creditors. When asked about the situation in Greece, Obama said the crisis-hit country would not deliver an economic recovery unless the government is allowed to pursue growth through fiscal stimulus.

"You cannot keep on squeezing countries that are in the midst of depression," the US president told CNN. "At some point, there has to be a growth strategy in order for them to pay off their debts to eliminate some of their deficits."

Obama said the Greek economy was in "dire need" of reform but warned that drastic changes were tough to implement in a struggling economy. "It's very hard to initiate those changes if peoples' standards of living are dropping by 25 percent. Over time, eventually, the political system -- the society -- can't sustain it," the US leader said.

Read More Business - Greece’s anti-austerity drive gets boost from Washington - France 24

Greece: Greek radical-left leader vows to end Wall Street imposed 'humiliation and pain'

Greek leftist leader Alexis Tsipras promised on Sunday that five years of austerity, “humiliation and pain” imposed by international creditors were over after his Syriza party swept to victory in a snap election on Sunday.

Read more: Europe - Greek radical-left leader vows to end 'humiliation and pain' - France 24

Euro hits 11-year low after Syriza victory in Greece

The euro briefly fell as low as $1.1088 - the lowest level against the dollar in more than 11 years.

Traders says there is uncertainty about what happens next in Greece, as Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras has pledged to renegotiate Greece's debts.

He has also vowed to reverse many of the austerity measures adopted by Greece in return for bailout deals.
"The troika for Greece is the thing of the past," he said after the election result, referring to the country's biggest international lenders - the European Union, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Central Bank (ECB).

Read more: BBC News - Euro hits 11-year low after Syriza victory in Greece

Greek elections: New Democracy try to form coalition

Antonis Samaras, the leader of the centre-right New Democracy party which came first in the poll, is to launch coalition talks today. He said yesterday that his party would honour all its commitments to the EU and the result was a "victory for all Europe".

Leaders of the EU appear relieved that a pro-austerity government could now form; if the anti-austerity party Syriza had won, its leader Alexis Tsipras had pledged to renegotiate the punishing terms of its bailout, threatening its place within the euro. Syriza came a close second, with 26.89% to ND's 29.66% with 99.95% of ballots counted; Tsipras vowed yesterday to remain outside the government and "upset the [austerity] measures and the bailout".

The most likely next step is for New Democracy to try to form a coalition with Pasok, the socialist party that came third with 12.2% of the vote. Together they would have 162 of the Greek parliament's 300 seats. Pasok said yesterday that it would not go into government without Syriza, but this may have been a tactic to make Syriza look as though it was not willing to play a constructive part in Greece's future. ND may also try to bring in the small Democratic Left party, which won 6.3% of the vote and while opposing the country's harsh austerity program has said it will do what is needed to help form a strong government.

Read more: Greek elections: New Democracy try to form coalition – live | World news | guardian.co.uk