Tag: alexis tsipras
Greek Leftists Put On Brave Face As Poll Shows Conservatives Pulling Ahead

Greek Leftists Put On Brave Face As Poll Shows Conservatives Pulling Ahead

By Angeliki Koutantou

ATHENS (Reuters) — Former Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras’s leftist Syriza party said on Thursday it remained confident of winning an outright victory in a Sept. 20 election despite an opinion poll that showed its main conservative rival edging ahead.

Just a few weeks ago, a Syriza victory in the snap election had appeared almost certain as Greeks lauded the charismatic and youthful Tsipras for waging a bruising battle against European and International Monetary Fund creditors over austerity cuts.

But opinion polls over the past week have shown the New Democracy party run by interim leader Vangelis Meimarakis catching up quickly, with one showing it even overtaking Syriza, suggesting a surprisingly tight contest for the vote.

A senior Syriza official played down New Democracy’s sudden spurt of momentum, reiterating his party’s ambition to win an absolute majority in parliament — the hope that propelled Tsipras to call the snap vote after clinching a bailout deal.

“Our objective continues to be an outright majority in parliament and in this case we would want to team up with the Independent Greeks,” Panos Skourletis, a former energy minister and close aide to Tsipras, told Mega TV, referring to Syriza’s former right-wing coalition ally.

He reiterated Syriza’s stance against an alliance with New Democracy. By contrast, the conservatives have said they are open to a broad alliance to help steer Greece through its worst post-war economic crisis.

According to the GPO poll published on Wednesday, Syriza’s stance is not backed by most Greeks — 59 percent of respondents preferred a coalition administration over a one-party government.

The poll also showed Syriza set to win 25 percent of votes, just behind New Democracy on 25.3 percent. More than one in 10 voters remained undecided, meaning the final outcome is far from certain.

MEIMARAKIS SURPRISES

But the biggest surprise in the poll was that Meimarakis, 61, a centrist figure within New Democracy who only took the conservative party’s reins in July and has since tried to unite its various factions, was deemed more popular than Tsipras.

He was shown with 44.3 percent approval ratings, compared to Tsipras’s 41.9 percent — a major reversal for the leftist leader, who had enjoyed ratings of up to 70 percent while he battled foreign creditors over a new bailout program.

Tsipras ultimately backed down and accepted a bailout and tough austerity policies in exchange for aid under the threat of a Greek exit from the euro, but only after shutting banks for three weeks and imposing capital controls to stop Greeks rushing to withdraw their bank deposits.

Polls now show most Greeks disapproved of how Tsipras, 41, managed the negotiations with creditors and of the final outcome — a bailout considered tougher than the previous two that has included a new round of punitive taxes and spending cuts.

Meimarakis, on the other hand, has benefited from keeping a low profile and is seen as a safer option among many Greeks disillusioned with their political choices, pollsters say.

“When it comes to undecided voters and they are asked who can solve most of Greece’s problems, Meimarakis is favored,” said one pollster, who declined to be named because the findings had not been published yet.

Syriza was favored for tackling corruption and tax evasion but on other issues such as the economy and immigration, Meimarakis was preferred, the pollster said.

Meimarakis, a former speaker of parliament, has focused his election campaign on an offensive against Tsipras and asking voters to consider the cost of the three-week bank shutdown and subsequent downward economic spiral under the leftist leader.

“I’m addressing the citizens who voted for Syriza, or abstained, telling them that they voted in protest but that the cost for that was really high. Is it really worth voting for Syriza again?” Meimarakis said during a campaign stop in Crete late on Wednesday.

“In seven months, the Syriza government has made things much more difficult for Greeks, in every sector.”

(Writing by Deepa Babington; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Photo: People make their way next to Greek national flags and a European Union flag in Athens, August 27, 2015. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis

Tsipras Resigns, Paving Way For Snap Greek Election

Tsipras Resigns, Paving Way For Snap Greek Election

By Renee Maltezou and Michele Kambas

ATHENS (Reuters) — Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras resigned on Thursday, hoping to strengthen his hold on power in snap elections after seven months in office in which he fought Greece’s creditors for a better bailout deal but had to cave in.

Tsipras submitted his resignation to President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and asked for the earliest possible election date.

Government officials said the aim was to hold the election on Sept. 20, with Tsipras seeking to crush a rebellion in his leftist Syriza party and seal public support for the bailout program, Greece’s third since 2010, that he negotiated.

“I will go to the president of the republic shortly to submit my resignation, as well as the resignation of my government,” Tsipras said in a televised address before he met Pavlopoulos.

Faced with a near collapse of the Greek financial system which threatened the country’s future in the euro, Tsipras was forced to accept the creditors’ demands for yet more austerity and economic reform — the very policies he had promised to scrap when he was elected in January.

“I want to be honest with you. We did not achieve the agreement we expected before the January elections,” he told the Greek people.

“I feel the deep ethical and political responsibility to put to your judgment all I have done, successes and failures.”

His decision deepens political uncertainty on the day Greece began receiving funds under its 86 billion-euro ($96 billion) bailout program, five years after a previous government took the first bailout from the euro zone and IMF.

But a snap election should allow Tsipras to capitalize on his popularity with voters before the toughest parts of the latest program — including further pension cuts, more value-added tax increases and a “solidarity” tax on incomes — begin to bite. This may allow him to return to power in a stronger position without anti-bailout rebels in Syriza to slow him down.

Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who chairs meetings of euro zone finance ministers, said he hoped the resignation would not delay or derail implementation of the bailout package.

“It is crucial that Greece maintains its commitments to the euro zone,” he said in a statement to Reuters.

MAJORITY LOST

Tsipras had long been expected to seek early elections in the autumn. But he was forced to move quickly after nearly a third of Syriza lawmakers refused to back the program in parliament last week, robbing him of his majority.

A leading rebel, Syriza lawmaker Dimitris Stratoulis, hinted that his faction might split formally from the party, declaring a “political and social front which will be anti-austerity, democratic and patriotic”.

“It will have as a goal to cancel the previous two bailout agreements and the third bailout agreement that the current government voted for, and to replace them with a policy of growth,” he said.

Greece’s complex constitution has special stipulations for holding elections less than 12 months after the previous vote, meaning the president should first give major opposition parties three days each to try to form a government.

Conservative leader Vangelis Meimarakis said he would have a go, although the arithmetic of the current parliament means his New Democracy party has little chance of pulling a coalition together.

Meimarakis took aim at Tsipras.

“He is a bit of a fibber. He might be likeable, but he is a bit cunning,” he told a news conference. “I feel he is fooling the Greek people, his comrades, and the Europeans … Did he get a bit too much sun in August?”

Tsipras nevertheless remains popular among his supporters for trying to stand up to the foreign creditors and with the opposition in disarray, he is widely expected to return to power.

A Metron Analysis poll on July 24 put support for Syriza at 33.6 percent, making it by far the most popular party, but not enough to govern without a coalition partner. No polls have been published since then due to the holiday season.

The prolonged standoff forced Athens to shut its banks for three weeks and impose capital controls before Tsipras accepted the bailout under threat of a financial collapse and Greek exit from the euro currency.

The first installment of aid allowed Greece to make a debt repayment to the European Central Bank that fell due on Thursday.

(Additional reporting by George Georgiopoulos, Lefteris Papadimas, Greg Roumeliotis and Toby Sterling, Writing by Deepa Babington and David Stamp, Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in Athens, August 20, 2015. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis

Greek PM Poised To Seek Snap Election To Quell Party Rebellion

Greek PM Poised To Seek Snap Election To Quell Party Rebellion

By Renee Maltezou

ATHENS (Reuters) — Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is set to seek early elections, state television said on Thursday, hoping to quell a rebellion in his leftist Syriza party and seal support to implement a tough bailout program.

Ministers have openly debated for days about what the government should do after a large number of hard left Syriza lawmakers refused to back the 86 billion euro ($96 billion) bailout in parliament on Friday.

However, a government official said on Thursday that the option of calling a parliamentary confidence vote had been shelved and the idea of seeking snap polls as early as mid-September had become more likely.

Tsipras — who remains popular in Greece and would be widely expected to return to power if elections were held now — was huddling with senior advisers on Thursday afternoon to decide his next move, a government official said.

“Everything is possible,” the official told reporters when asked whether Tsipras could announce elections later in the day.

ERT state television said the timing of snap elections would be announced later on Thursday.

Tsipras won power only in January and Greece’s complex constitution has special stipulations for holding elections less than 12 months after the previous vote. Under these, President Prokopis Pavlopoulos cannot immediately call an election if Tsipras resigns, but must first consult the other major parties to see if they could form a government — a remote likelihood with the current parliamentary arithmetic.

Tsipras had been expected to call snap polls at some point in the autumn after his bruising seven months in office when Greece nearly crashed out of the euro zone and shut its banks for three weeks during a standoff with its euro zone and IMF creditors.

After campaigning against bailouts, the 41-year-old prime minister accepted last month Greece’s third bailout, which demands tax increases and spending cuts, to avoid a banking collapse.

But the votes in parliament to pass the austerity measures laid bare a revolt by nearly a third of Syriza lawmakers, forcing Tsipras to rely on opposition support and robbing him of a guaranteed parliamentary majority.

AID DISBURSED

With the bailout finally approved in parliament and the first installment of aid disbursed — allowing Greece to repay a debt to the European Central Bank that fell due on Thursday — Tsipras is turning his focus to internal politics.

Senior aides, such as Energy Minister Panos Skourletis, said the split with the party rebels who are threatening to break away had to be dealt with. “The political landscape must clear up. We need to know whether the government has or does not have a majority,” he told ERT.

Syriza is expected to call a party congress in September to resolve differences with the rebels. But, expressing his personal opinion, Skourletis said Tsipras should move faster. “I would say elections first, then the party congress,” he said.

Tsipras is weighing at least two options. One is to call elections in September before voters start feeling the new bailout measures including further pension cuts, more value-added tax increases and a “solidarity” tax on incomes.

Knock-on effects of capital controls imposed in June, which are likely to stay until Greek banks are recapitalized later this year with bailout funds, will also hurt voters.

The other option is to delay the vote till October, after international creditors have reviewed Greece’s performance in keeping to the bailout program. They will then start to consider some way of easing the country’s huge debt burden.

Tsipras has long argued that Greece will never be able to repay all its debts and wants some to be written off. While the euro zone favors merely delaying interest and principal repayments, Tsipras could still present any debt relief moves as an achievement to the electorate.

A Metron Analysis poll on July 24 put support for Syriza at 33.6 percent, making it by far the most popular party, but not enough to govern without a coalition partner. No polls have been published since then due to the holiday season.

Syriza members have argued that the party should aim for a majority, saying this would achieve the stable government which Greece has lacked through the past five years of crisis.

“These elections, whenever they are announced by the government, will provide a stable governing solution. My feeling is that Syriza will have an absolute majority,” Dimitris Papadimoulis, a Syriza lawmaker in the European parliament, told Mega TV.

(Additional reporting by George Georgiopoulos and Michele Kambas, Writing by Deepa Babington; editing by David Stamp)

Photo: Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras delivers his speech as he attends a news conference after a meeting at the Greek Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks in Athens, Greece, August 12, 2015. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann