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Greece Faces Snap Elections As Lawmakers Abandon Tsipras
Last week, Greek lawmakers once again voted for a bailout deal that no one - not Greece and not Greece’s creditors - truly supports. The deal, which will allow Athens to make a €3.2 billion payment to the ECB this week, averts near-term economic ruin but virtually ensures that the country will remained mired in recession for years as Europe once again displays its penchant for Einsteinian insanity by forcing fiscal retrenchment on states that are already struggling economically.
The deal still needs the approval of other European parliaments but is expected to pass - even in Germany. That said, the agreement with Athens comes at a cost for Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose bulletproof reputation has suffered over the course of the protracted standoff with the Greeks and will face perhaps its greatest test on Wednesday when the Bundestag will vote on the new bailout package. As FT notes, “the deal is certain to get German legislative approval thanks to support from the Social Democrats, but a big rebellion by Christian Democrats and their Bavarian sister party, the CSU, would represent the biggest challenge to Ms Merkel since she took power a decade ago.”
Meanwhile, Greek PM Alexis Tsipras will soon be forced to grapple with his own political future in the face of fierce party infighting that threatened to derail the bailout deal earlier this month.
Lacking the support he needs to win a confidence vote, snap elections now appear increasingly likely. Here’s Reuters:
Greece's socialist PASOK party joined the main opposition on Sunday in saying it would not back Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras if he calls a confidence vote following a rebellion in the governing party over a new bailout deal.
Tsipras had to rely on opposition groups including PASOK to win a parliamentary majority on Friday in favour of the 86 billion euro bailout programme, Greece's third with international creditors since 2010.
By contrast, Tsipras suffered the biggest rebellion yet among anti-bailout lawmakers from his leftist Syriza party, forcing him to consider a confidence vote that would pave the way for early elections if he loses.
PASOK made clear that while it had backed the government over bailout for the sake of saving Greece from financial ruin, that support would not extend to any confidence vote in the coming weeks.
The party blamed Tsipras and Panos Kammenos, who leads the minority partner in the coalition government, for the fact that Greece had to take yet another bailout with tough austerity and reform conditions demanded by the euro zone and IMF.
"The government has signed the third and most onerous bailout. All the negative consequences for the country and its citizens bear the signatures of Mr Tsipras and Mr Kammenos," the party said in a statement. "We have no confidence in the Tsipras-Kammenos government and of course will not give it if we are asked."
On Friday, support for the government from within its own coalition parties fell below 120 votes, the minimum needed to survive a confidence vote if some others abstain.
And while Tsipras remains popular among voters, he, like Merkel, needs to preside over a strong government to ensure that the inevitable stumbling blocks along the road to implementing the bailout will not mean that the country faces ongoing political upheaval. One such stumbling block is of course the IMF, which remains skeptical of the deal's viability in the absence of writedowns from Greece's EU creditors. Here's what Christine Lagarde had to say on Friday:
I remain firmly of the view that Greece’s debt has become unsustainable and that Greece cannot restore debt sustainability solely through actions on its own. Thus, it is equally critical for medium and long-term debt sustainability that Greece’s European partners make concrete commitments in the context of the first review of the ESM program to provide significant debt relief, well beyond what has been considered so far.
IMF participation is considered "indispensable" for many German MPs and in reality, the Bundestag is being asked to take in on faith that Merkel will be able to secure the IMF's support at some later date. Here's The Guardian:
“Mrs Lagarde, the chief of the IMF, made very clear that if these conditions are met, then she will recommend to the IMF board that the IMF takes part in the programme from October,” Merkel told the broadcaster ZDF. “I have no doubts that what Mrs Lagarde said will become reality.”
Representatives from Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, want the IMF involved because of its reputation for rigour.
Lagarde, who has been pressing eurozone countries to provide Athens with “significant” debt relief, reiterated at the weekend that Greece’s European creditors must make “concrete commitments” on relieving the debt burden. She has said the IMF will wait until October to decide whether to participate. That would force lawmakers to vote without any guarantees that the Washington-based institution would have a role.
In short, the political ramifications of the Greek bailout have begun to reveal themselves both in Athens and in Berlin, and while both Tsipras and Merkel will likely survive the turmoil (albeit only after new elections have been called in Greece), the fractious nature of the political scene both in Germany and in Greece likely means that the bailout agreement will be thrown into question almost constantly going forward, creating a perpetual headache for markets and especially for the Greek populace.
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If you think this bailout round was painful, wait for the next one!
pods
Staying inside a crashing aircraft does not count as bailing out.
Golden Dawn is the only way out.
Which is why they jailed Golden Dawn based on a conspiracy.
Hail
Golden Dawn
Who are these dumbasses negotiating for Greece?
They set out to negotiate a $30bn bailout and end up doing so much damage they need $90bn!!?!
They managed to successfully negotiate much much worse terms than they were offered at the beginning of the process?!!?
I mean come on! Tsipras is an epic failure. I mean it could not have gone worse if he had tried to get the worst possible outcome.
A steaming warm turd could have closed a better deal for Greece.
And yet he remains popular and the majority of Greeks want to stay in Euro.. That's the most stunning part.
We need to amend the Constitution to get the benefit of snap elections here.
The asshats in power are too comfortable.
What is painful is ZH putting a huge stupid ad box on the top left corner and cut off the beginning of every article.
For me half of the time loading this page it crashes.....enough is enough..how many ads do you want at one time TD...this is getting stupid...TD must be going public soon..so he needs his ad revenue up.....I have ads to the left..on top..and to the right of every page...its a joke now
Firefox & AdBlock Plus......No Pop-Ups
Chrome (free), Adblock (free) and Ghostery (free) = ad free
Greece is a must watch, only a few steps ahead of us.
I told you guys before this is March 1933 all over agian.
Golden Dawn
Donald Trump
The big question is how did Hitler convince the German people to vote for him?
Now you know how, he offered a solution.
he offered a solution.
So did Ronald Reagan, John F Kennedy and every other politician since the beginning. You're not making much of a point wuth that statement.
And if we're now at the point of comparing Trump to Hitler, he definitely has my vote. Arbitrary comparisons to The Fuehrer are always the last desperate attempts of a failed political argument.
Where did I say the comparision was a bad thing? lol
Trump said yesterday when pushed by the media to outline his platform details " The media wants detalis but the voters don't care, they know I will make a good deal"
He knows they are all in.
Trump is a little too early. Things aren't bad enough yet and the majority isn't quite willing to accept Trump's "solutions".
Varoufakis should have slapped him whilst he had the chance.
I vote Vegetable Garden.
Tar and feather the fool, figuratively.
and literally.
So, another election where the people say no and the politicians do whatever they damned well please, huh?
And Angie's now OK with maturity extensions but not rate reductions.
What the fuck, an event of default is an event of default and a restructuring is a restructuring
The shit blizzard's a coming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-5_Nw0tFXE
I'm liking that shit blizzard knuk. That one rolls right off the tongue.
Going into my lexicon with proper attribution!
pods
The people said no to the conditions, but they still want (need) the money.
About frigging time......
Bullshit article.
Troika + 1 will not allow elections anytime soon. Tsipras can pass agreed austerity measures in parliament with the help of the opposition. They will not risk another "surprise" result like the resounding NO of the referendum to upset the apple card. Period.
EDIT: "while Tsipras remains popular among voters".....LOL. Instead of parroting bullshit which appears in Greek newspapers, ZH should rethink this premise. The 62% who voted NO in the referendum and were betrayed are looking for revenge, and it's a question of time but they will get it. Tsipras is a political charlatan and a burned card.
Hey...Fuck you Tsipras....loser...
Varoufakis 'resigned' and voted against the bailout, no doubt just ahead of Schauble's Dobermans. I'll try to use his line with my wife: "I'm a team player, I just can't support my leader's decisions." If he could I guess he wouldn't have been Dobermaned.
A victim of the neo-liberal double bind.
The Greek solution, have an election when you can't pay for shit.
As compared to the US where every 4 years we get to vote for s..... Oh, never mind.
I took a Tsipras this morning
The only reason and its the ONLY reason for giving these Greeks money..is so Italy and Spain dont do the same thing....this makes no sense at all....none...zero....but they will do it....to save the banks
what I dont understand is why dont they do 2 or 4 year terms.
This snap election stuff is crap.
Greece has a proportional representation system of voting. Which guarantees there will always be a dozen political parties and will always produce minority governments.
The "governing" party is a (fragile) coalition of the person/party that can band together the most support. But this support can abandon the "ruling" party in an instant and vote No Confidence in the government. The government is disolved and elections are held.
That was fast money. Usually the fraud has to serve 4-6 years before they allow him to escape with the loot. Corzined!!!
The Greek politicians and the Greek people actually voted NO for the CONDITIONS attached to the bailout.
In fact, they are still want the "free money".
Tsipras caved, so he is finished.
The Greeks have an " alibi" when it comes to not honouring the deal that was signed. Simply put, the Greek people gave a 62% thumbs down which the government ignored therefore only the politicians are responsible for the debt. The Greek people are free to do what they wish with the debt cooked up between their politicians and other outside politicians, governments and bankers.
Tsipras turned out to be a two faced liar, just like our "dear leader".