GREECE will have a new
prime minister, and Europe its first anti-austerity government, following
elections on January 25th. Preliminary results show that Syriza, a left-wing
party led by Alexis Tsipras, has won handsomely, claiming around 36% of the
vote, an eight-percentage-point lead over the New Democracy party of Antonis
Samaras, the outgoing prime minister.
Current polling suggests that Syriza may
have fallen just short of the 151 seats needed for an absolute parliamentary
majority. If so, Mr Tsipras will have to form a coalition of his own, most
probably with a smaller party such as To Potami (The River), a new centre-left
party that drew around 5% of the vote.
In a victory speech in Athens, Mr Tsipras
told supporters that the "troika" of institutions (the European
Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF) that oversees Greece's
bail-out programme was a thing of the past. That may be a promise he cannot
deliver on. But he has been given a mandate to try.
(Πηγή: The Economist.com)
