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Independent Greeks leader says ready to form coalition again with SYRIZA

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kammenos--2-thumb-largeGreece’s right-wing Independent Greeks party said on Sunday it would ally with election winners SYRIZA to form a coalition government.

“From tomorrow morning, with Alexis Tspiras as Prime Minister we will form a government,” Independent Greeks president Panos Kammenos told reporters.

SYRIZA was emerging as the clear winner in Sunday’s poll, with 35.5 percent based on more than half of votes counted. That would give it 145 seats in the 300-strong parliament.

Kammenos’s party was polling about 3.7 percent, with an estimated 10 seats.

[Reuters]

Greece election: Syriza takes early lead

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Breaking-News-gagrule-1Greece’s left-wing Syriza party has taken an early lead over the conservative New Democracy, with counting under way in the nation’s fifth election in six years.
With 10% of votes counted, Alexis Tsipras’s Syriza had 35% of the vote, according to interior ministry data, with New Democracy on 28%.
The snap election was called after Syriza lost its majority in August
Mr Tsipras’s popularity plummeted after he agreed a new financial bailout deal.
The final exit poll suggested Syriza had a lead of between 4.5 and 5 points over New Democracy.
Syriza supporters at the party’s main electoral HQ in Athens cheered and clapped as the exit polls were announced.
Mr Tsipras was hugged by party supporters as he arrived there.
However, a result along these lines will not give Mr Tsipras an absolute majority.
The BBC’s Richard Galpin in Athens says this will mean another period of political instability just as deadlines loom for the implementation of a series of key financial reforms.
Mr Tsipras had signed the bailout deal shortly after holding a referendum in which more than 60% of voters rejected the austerity measures creditors wanted to impose.
In interviews leading up to the election, Mr Tsipras said he had put his country above his party. He said that had he not agreed to the three-year bailout, Greece would probably have had to leave the eurozone.

Greece PM SYRIZA: WE WELCOME THE BIG SUCCESS OF HDP IN THE PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS

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by hdpenglish

main_Greece_Syriza-cropSYRIZA is monitoring the very important developments for the future of Turkey with great interest, wishing to underline that political stability and democracy in Turkey is of special importance both for our relations and for the wider region.

In parallel, we welcome the big success of HDP in yesterday’s parliamentary elections in Turkey.

The people of Turkey are increasingly choosing to defend diversity, human rights, diversity in beliefs and personal life, to build a society without authoritarianism and discrimination based on origin, language, gender and religion.

The increase of the electoral percentage of the nationalists of MHP may be a concern and highlight the contradictions of our times, but we are confident that the dynamic entrance of HDP in the Turkish National Assembly will help to deepen democracy, combat nationalism and fundamentalism of all kinds, promote the peace process and strengthen the current rise of leftist and democratic forces in the Mediterranean and Europe as a whole.

Athens, 8 June 2015
SYRIZA Press Office

Turkey’s Kurds celebrate Syriza victory

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Tsipras signs papers appointing him as Greece's first leftist prime minister at the presidential palace in AthensSyriza was amazingly vocal in Turkey’s Taksim-Gezi upheavals in the summer of 2013. Its banner in English during Gezi that read “The Sea Separates Us but the Dignity Unites” was unforgettable for Turkey’s young activists. Also, one of Gezi’s victims targeted by police bullets, Berkin Elvan, 14 — of Alevi origin — became a symbol of solidarity for Syriza. The posters carrying his image with the slogan (also in Turkish) “You are our brother, Berkin” were seen during the Greek election campaign.

Syriza is very sensitive to the Kurds’ plight in and around Turkey. A Syriza delegation visited the Turkish-Kurdish frontier settlements near Kobani in November, while the Kurds were engaged in their epic resistance against the Islamic State (IS).

It’s striking that the liberation of Kobani from IS coincided with the electoral victory of Syriza. While people were celebrating Syriza’s victory in Athens, the Kurds in Istanbul, Diyarbakir and Suruc, the border town right across from Kobani, were dancing in the streets, also saluting Syriza.

Turkey’s public opinion, as a matter of fact, learned that Syriza has organic relations with two Turkish parties: HDP and the Freedom and Solidarity Party (ODP). The latter was founded in 1996 and it is the real replica of the Syriza in Turkey. It was the coalition of a number of quasi-Marxist far-left parties of 1970s Turkey. It has been in constant contact with those who later formed Syriza. However, the ODP never succeeded to get over 0.1% of the vote in Turkey’s elections.

The HDP is a different story. The core is the Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), which is close to the positions of the Kurdistan Workers Party. The BDP, under the instructions of the imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan, decided to expand to ally mainly with the Turkish left, and transformed into the HDP to run it as a wider, Kurdish-Turkish pro-democracy leftist party. Its co-chairman, a relatively young and appealing politician, Demirtas, ran as a candidate for presidency in August and got very close to 10% of the votes, very near the national threshold in parliamentary elections. Previously, the Kurdish vote for the BDP and its predecessors was always around 6% to more than 7%.

Demirtas’ appeal, therefore, fueled the hopes of the pro-Kurdish HDP by attracting some Turkish constituency. It may reach the national threshold in the June 2015 elections.

Syriza wins Greek election as Samaras congratulates Tsipras – live updates

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PM Samaras concedes defeat
B8OQhRXCQAAtNUt.jpg_largePrime minister Antonis Samaras has conceded defeat. The New Democracy leader called Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras to congratulate him.

Syriza party leader Alexis Tsipras casts his votePunching 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.

 

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.”

Greek Elections: Exit Polls Show Expected SYRIZA Win With Larger Margin [Update]

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by Philip Chrysopoulos –

Exit_poll1Initial results from exit polls show that Greeks gave the leftist SYRIZA party a margin of over 12 points against New Democracy in today’s general elections. Exit poll figures show that SYRIZA can form a government.

The first results give SYRIZA the edge over the ruling New Democracy conservatives led by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and his coalition partner PASOK.

If the results hold up, it would be a historic moment for Greece with a far-left party triumphing. SYRIZA leader Tsipras had been hoping for a margin big enough to form a leftist government without having to cooperate with a smaller party. He may be able to achieve that later in the evening.

So far, exit polls show SYRIZA at 35.5-39.5%, New Democracy at 23-27%, Golden Dawn and “To Potami” edging for third place at 6.4-8% each, the Greek Communist Party (KKE) at 4.7-5.7%, PASOK at 4.2-5.2%, Independent Greeks (ANEL) at 3.5-4.5%, Socialist Democrats Movement (KIDISO) at 2.2-3.2%, LAOS at 0.6-1.6%, ANTARSYA at 0.6-1.6%, Greens/DIMAR 0.3-0.7%.

SYRIZA had been leading steadily in opinion polls even before snap elections were announced. The leftist party won based on a campaign stressing the importance of a debt write-off and ending the austerity measures imposed to Greece by the Troika of its international creditors. They also accused the New Democracy/PASOK coalition for bringing Greece to the worst humanitarian and economic crisis since the German occupation.

New Democracy based its election campaign on economic and political stability, while stressing the importance of maintaining ties with Greece’s European partners and keeping the country in the Eurozone. They accused SYRIZA of populism and promises that were impossible to keep. They also warned voters that the leftist party will lead Greece out of the Eurozone and into economic abyss. Both parties promised tax reduction.

SYRIZA was polling roughly between 27% and 33%, while New Democracy ranged from 22% to 27%. Four parties rallied for third place, the crucial third party that could potentially ally with the winner. “To Potami,” Golden Dawn, PASOK and the Greece ‘s Communist Party (KKE), all ran at around 6% in polls.

The new populist, anti-politician “To Potami” movement, which had been as high as third in pre-election polls, was showing a disappointing 5-7%, tied with the KKE communists. Then came the Independent Greeks at 3-4%.

The polls coincided with the second round run-off of local elections, with both races contentious and Samaras warning that SYRIZA would plunge the country back into chaos just as he said he had put it on the road to recovery and brought political stability.

But he couldn’t convince Greeks enough that the big pay cuts, tax hikes, slashed pensions and worker firings he implemented on demand of the Troika in return for 240 billion euros ($330.7 billion) in two bailouts was the only way out of a crisis.

That had been largely caused by the ruling parties taking turns for four decades with wild overspending and runaway patronage that bankrupted the country.

Samaras had argued the EU polls shouldn’t be a referendum on his government, especially since he said Greece had reached a primary surplus of 1.5 billion euros and last month floated a 3-billion-euro bond, the first since a previous PASOK government in 2010 first reached out for a bailout with the economy on the precipice of disaster.

– See more at: http://greece.greekreporter.com/2015/01/25/greek-elections-exit-polls-show-expected-syriza-win/#sthash.k7ILxQog.dpuf

Greek election: Anti-austerity Syriza battles New Democracy

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greece.thumbGreeks are voting in a general election which could result in Greece trying to renegotiate the terms of its bailout with international lenders, the BBC reports.

The leftwing Syriza party, which has been leading in opinion polls, wants part of Greece’s huge debt written off and austerity measures revoked.
This has spooked money markets and raised fears of a Greek exit from the euro.
But the governing New Democracy party says the economy is recovering.
Greece has endured tough budget cuts in return for the bailout negotiated with the so-called troika of lenders – the European Union, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Central Bank (ECB).
The economy has shrunk drastically since the 2008 global financial crisis, increasing unemployment and throwing many Greeks into poverty.

Polls across Greece opened at 07:00 local time (05:00 GMT) and will close at 19:00.
There are nearly 10 million eligible voters, who are electing the country’s 300-member parliament.
First exit polls are expected immediately after the voting ends.
Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras says his party will restore “dignity” to Greece by rolling back on cuts to jobs, pay and pensions which have hurt millions of people across the country.

The possibility of a Syriza victory has sparked fears that Greece could default on its debt and leave the euro – the single currency of 19 EU members.
This is despite the fact that Syriza has moderated its stance since the peak of the eurozone crisis, and says it wants Greece to stay a member of the currency.
Meanwhile, the leader of centre-right New Democracy and PM Antonis Samaras has promised to work “day and night” to keep the country standing.
Syriza, he argues, could force the country from the euro by its policies, serving what he called the “drachma lobby”, a reference to the former Greek currency.

He also warns that Greece could miss out on a massive program of quantitative easing unveiled by the ECB last week to help stimulate the eurozone economy.
The centrist To Potami and the right-wing Golden Dawn party are expected to fight for third place in the elections.

Greek economy in numbers

• Average wage is €600 (£450: $690) a month

• Unemployment is at 25%, with youth unemployment almost 50%

• Economy has shrunk by 25% since the start of the eurozone crisis

• Country’s debt is 175% of GDP

• Borrowed €240bn (£188bn) from the EU, the ECB and the IMF