[lbo-talk] SYRIZA (Coalition of the Radical Left) to be given chance to form government

[Ira Glazer]

According to to Kathimerini, on tuesday syriza will be given the
opportunity to form a new government. It's leader, Alexis Tsipras, had
previously said that he wanted to form a government of the forces of the
left, or at least of those who oppose the austerity program The problem
with this is that of the 7 parties that won seats to the parliament, 2 (new
democracy and pasok) are the ones who signed the austerity agreement, 1 is
a neo-nazi party (that won 21 seats), and the communist party of greece
(kke) has ruled out any coalition with syriza. That leaves syriza (52
seats), the independent greeks (new right-wing anti-austerity party, with
33 seats), and dimar (social democratic party with 19 seats). A majority of
151 is needed.  50 seats are given to the winning party, with an eye on
creating 'stability' (which is why new democracy has 108 seats, even though
there vote total was not much more that syriza (18.85% to 16.78%). However,
I'm not clear if a part that winds up putting together a majority coalition
is then awarded the extra 50 seats. The reason syriza will be given the
opportunity is because new democacy already admitted failure today in
tyring to put together a majority coalition.  It's interesting to note that
none of the non-austerity parties (that is everyone but ne democracy and
pasok) are willing to form a coalition with the two austerity parties.
Fwiw, syriza might be getting advice from varoufakis, in that two of its
main proposals are things he himself has suggested: defaulting within the
eurozone (he says there is no legal mechanism for kicking greece out), and
the creation of a roosevelt-type of new deal for europe.