PM Samaras concedes defeat
Prime minister Antonis Samaras has conceded defeat. The New Democracy leader called Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras to congratulate him.
Punching the air, Tsipras told the crowd: “Today the Greek people has written history, Hope has written history … Greece is turning a page. Greece is leaving the austerity of catastrophe and fear … there are no losers and winners. Those who have been defeated are the elite and oligarchs … we are regaining our dignity, our sovereignty again.”
Tsipras adds: “Today was a defeat for the Greece of the elites and the oligarchs. The Greece that works and hopes won.” He promises a way of the “vicious cycle” of debt. “The new Greek government will prove all the Cassandras of the world wrong,” he says. He promises to restore popular sovereignty and a clash with corruption. “We regain hope, optimism and dignity,” Tsipras says.
The massive vote for Syriza in Greece is genuinely inspiring – and necessary – and requires our real solidarity and support.
— Ken Livingstone (@ken4london) January 25, 2015
The geography of the vote: Syriza in red, New Democracy in blue pic.twitter.com/cP424UEoAc
— Stathis Kalyvas (@SKalyvas) January 25, 2015
Germany and Syriza are about to enter a high stakes poker game, writes Louise Osborne in Berlin.
Julian Rappold, a political analyst at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), says the German government would not have wished for such a strong result for Syriza and now faces possible renegotiation while also having to appease the German public.
“A haircut is non-negotiable from the German side, first and foremost because of the strong public opinion against the haircut, so I don’t think Germany is likely to give that concession,” he said. “If the result of the negotiations is presented in the German public as something which is broadly in line with German interests, I think it won’t be a problem, but if the concessions are considered to be high, it will be detrimental to the conservatives.”
Rappold added that both sides – Berlin and Syriza – would have to work quickly to establish communication channels. “A poker game is starting where both sides will try to figure out where the common ground is and which demands each can hope for.”