As head of the government Tsipras could take or threaten actions that would be so damaging to the interests represented by the Troika that they would have little time to be concerned with Greece. And if they compromise with Tsipras they could be met with other demands for compromise. This could be quite helpful to Hollande. Whether the Irish, the Portuguese and the Spanish governments have the wit and will to take advantage of any such compromise would soon be known, but they could benefit in any case.

Whatever actions the Troika could take against a defiant Greek government are likely to be less damaging than allowing the current madness to continue, especially if that government were to take vigorous and thoughtful action in their own interests and even more so if they are joined by other countries. The present course can only lead to further disasters for all who are on it.

If the other parties support him in the expectation that he will be forced to back down, as they would themselves be, they might be in for a surprise. We will have to wait and see. This letter, combined with Tsipras being asked to form a government, is great news. We will have to see what comes of it.

A SYRIZA government in Greece would certainly be a large potential advantage for Hollande in his efforts to change the course of the current austerity policy - if he exploits it. Of course French banks are among the potential casualties of the Greeks playing hardball with the Troika and we will have to see how Hollande deals with that. Hollande could be in a position to force the ECB and German government to choose between financial Armageddon and an immediate and beneficial change in EMU structure and policy.

I pray (an atheist's prayer) that I will awake tomorrow to find Tsipras as PM of Greece, and if not tomorrow then soon. Angie might loose all sphincter control in such a situation. These two elections combined with electoral losses in Germany for Merkel's party could be portents of things to come.

Health, long life and good fortune to Alexis Tsipras.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

Do you reckon your party leadership has the tactical clout to direct the blame for any failure to form government on them?

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

It seems to me this letter sets the countdown for Greece to leave the EU. As usual these far left parties, that never were exactly pro-european, rapidly become nationalistic when power becomes a possibility.

I don't see the point of blackmail at this stage. If a new government decides to pull out of these agreements the consequences will be swift, the austerians may not need to do anything.

luis_de_sousa@mastodon.social

Panic everywhere. European shares fell, spreads rose across the board, and the euro was down below $1.30 again. The panic set in as the outside world started to comprehend the enormity of the Greek election results. The trigger was the speech by Alexis Tsipras, the young leader of the anti-austerity Syriza party that ended up in second place in Sunday's elections. Kathimerini writes that Tsipras yesterday proposed a five point plan:  immediate cancellation of the austerity programme, cancellation of the law to end collective contracts, proportional representation, nationalisation of the banks, and the formation of a committee to investigate whether Greece can pay its debts.

Tsipras has three days to form a government. He spent Tuesday in talks with leftist parties but had mixed success. He is due to meet the heads of PASOK and New Democracy on Wednesday. It is expected Tsipras will be unable to reach any agreement by Thursday, leading to PASOK taking over the mandate to form a government. After that, Papoulias will call in the party leaders to try to broker a deal. If that fails, a caretaker government will be appointed and new elections called.

Kathimerini writes  that Tsipras is to send a letter to Jose Manuel Barroso, Herman Van Rompuy and Mario Draghi to argue that the fact that PASOK and New Democracy received just 32% of the vote means that the terms of the bailout can no longer apply. Tsipras wants PASOK and New Democracy to do the same in a letter to the IMF and the EU. This prompted Antonio Samaras to accuse Tsipras of risking Greece's membership of the eurozone. The conservative leader said his party would be prepared to back a minority government "as long as it secures the country's position in the eurozone and its national interest." But, he said, the leftist leader's statement left no doubt "that he has no intention of safeguarding Greece's European identity and future" and revealed "unbelievable arrogance."

Jörg Asmussen became the first eurozone official to link Greek membership of the eurozone to the reform programme. He told Handelsblatt that there was no readiness from the troika's side to re-engage in negotiations Asked if Greece should get out of the eurozone if it does not implement the program he replied that it was up to them to decide whether they want to remain a member. According to Süddeutsche Zeitung, the troika has cancelled all meetings it had planned to hold in Athens in May in order to wait for a clarification of the political situation.

On his upcoming talks to explore whether he will be able to form a majority coalition with parties of the left and parties representing environmental concerns, the head of SYRIZA -- which gleaned 16.78 percent at the ballot box and won 52 seats in the 300-seat Parliament -- laid out the five points that will be the focus of discussions:

• The immediate cancellation of all impending measures that will impoverish Greeks further, such as cuts to pensions and salaries.

• The immediate cancellation of all impending measures that undermine fundamental workers' rights, such as the abolition of collective labor agreements.

• The immediate abolition of a law granting MPs immunity from prosecution, reform of the electoral law and a general overhaul of the political system.

• An investigation into Greek banks, and the immediate publication of the audit performed on the Greek banking sector by BlackRock.

• The setting up of an international auditing committee to investigate the causes of Greece's public deficit, with a moratorium on all debt servicing until the findings of the audit are published.

"We are not indifferent to whether the country will be governed or not, but we are primarily concerned with the direction in which the country will be governed and whether the people's mandate will be respected,» Tsipras said.

You cannot imagine the intensity of propaganda, venom and ouright lies that the media are flooded with. 'Serious' news sources, announced that SYRIZA wanted to seize everybody's savings from the banks...

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom - William Blake

Syriza: 27.7% (up from 16.78% in last Sunday's slection)
New Democracy: 20.3% (up from 18.8%)
Pasok: 12.6% (down from 13.1%
Independent Greeks: 10.2% (down from 10.6%)
KKE: 7% (down from 8.48%)
Golden Dawn: 5.7% (down from 6.97%)
Democratic Left: 4.9% (down from 6.1%)

Athens Thursday May 10, 2012

Dear Mr. President

I am sending you this letter after returning the exploratory mandate with which the President of the Hellenic Republic entrusted me, so that I could determine the possibility of the creation of a government that would enjoy the parliament's confidence, according to our Constitution. This letter is a continuation of the previous one I had sent you on February 21.

The vote of the the Greek people on Sunday May 6th, delegitimizes politically the Memorandum of Understanding / Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policy which was signed by the previous government under Mr. Papademos and the leaders of the two parties which had guaranteed the parliamentary majority of that government. Both these parties recorded a loss if about 3,5 million votes, receiving a combined 33,5% of total votes.

We would ask you to note that, before this, the Memorandum of Understanding / MEFP had been already delegitimized as regards to its economic efficiency.

But it isn't just that the MoU/MEFP failed in achieving its own stated goals. It is also that it has failed to confront the structural imbalances of the Greek economy. SYRIZA has been pointing out all these past years the endogenous weaknesses of the economy. All governments, in close collaboration with the EU, ignored our proposals for concrete reforms.

Please note also, that because of the policies of the MoU/MEFP, Greece is the only European country ever in peacetime to be suffering in 2012, its fifth consecutive year of deep recession. Furthermore, the bond exchange program (PSI) has failed to secure in a reliable way the long-term viability of the public debt, which is increasing as a percentage of Greek GDP. Austerity cannot in any way be a therapy during a recession. The immediate, socially just, reversal of the declining trend of our economy is therefore imperative.

We must urgently secure economic and social stability in our country. For this reason, we have a duty to undertake every possible political initiative in order to reverse austerity and recession. Because, beyond the lack of democratic legitimization, a continued implementation of the program of internal devaluation leads the economy towards a catastrophe, without producing the prerequisites for recovery. Internal devaluation tends to lead to a humanitarian crisis.

We therefore have a duty to re-examine the whole framework of existing strategy, given that it not only threatens social cohesion and stability in Greece, but also is a source of instability for the EU itself and for the Eurozone.

The common future of European peoples is under the threat of these disastrous choices. It is our deep conviction that the problem of this crisis is European and that therefore it is at a European level that a solution must be found...

Respectfully

Alexis Tsipras

President of the SYRIZA Parliamentary Group

Vice-chairman of the Party of the European Left

6.06pm Greece, Portugal and Ireland must meet their obligations under bailout agreements reached with international lenders, the head of the International Monetary Fund has said.   "I keep repeating myself: it's implementation, implementation, implementation. There are no alternative options in these countries," Christine Lagarde said after a meeting in Turkey.

I'm reminded of an old strategy when one of your suppliers was going bankrupt: stop paying them...why not just let the commissaire aux comptes and the liquidators try to collect it?

Perhaps this isn't a bad strategy...no one should pay their taxes in Greece until there is a democratically legitimate government in Athens.

The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet. Winston Churchill

A government receives a confidence vote when they have a majority of "yes" votes over "no" votes. So abstentions do not count. If a governments has received a majority of valid votes in parliament, as long as they are over 120 they have the confidence of the parliament.

Thus, I think, will the two-party system try to evade elections with the help of either DIMAR as a whole or various MPs that can be coerced or bought.

That's because an hour ago yet another poll just confirmed that SYRIZA is projected at 26% ND at 21 and DIMAR at 5,5% (along with KKE). So they have strong incentive to do something....

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom - William Blake

"A lot of the firms, particularly in Europe and also here, have been looking at that for a long time," said Grossman, who added that the latest Greek political crisis had brought matters "to a little bit of a head".

"But there really has been contingency planning at all of the financial institutions for that to happen ... Greece leaving the euro zone is not a new idea," he said.

...

"Forex desks can get ready relatively quickly. It depends on exactly how the exit from the euro happens," said Lewis O'Donald, the London-based Chief Risk Officer at Japanese investment bank Nomura (9716.T).

Greek coalition hopes dashed as leftist leader stands firm | World news | The Guardian

Efforts to fill the increasingly worrying power vacuum floundered as leaders rounded on Alexis Tsipras, head of the radical leftist party Syriza, whose anti-austerity coalition emerged from inconclusive elections as the most popular force in the country. He was accused of being more interested in party politics than a way out of the quagmire.

"Syriza doesn't accept the formation of a viable government, or even to agree to support a government which would undertake to renegotiate the terms of the loan agreement," said Antonis Samaras, the conservative New Democracy leader, after discussions at the neo-classical presidential palace ended abruptly.

Evangelos Venizelos, the socialist Pasok party leader, said Syriza's "irresponsible" refusal to participate in a national unity government had put immense strain on a country whose finances were heading towards collapse.

...Tsipras stuck to his guns, saying the political establishment wanted to lure in his party, the surprise runner-up in the elections a week earlier, as "partners in crime".