Greek General Election, January 2015

[neilm]

There is to be an election in Greece following another stalemate in parliament selecting a president.

Syriza currently leads in the polls.

[Deleted]

Called for January 25th.

[Deleted]

PAOSK could drop to 5th maybe even 6th place in this election.

Whoever wins putting a coalition together will be difficult.

[markgoodair]

Good news for anyone going on holiday to the eurozone we should get a bit more for our pounds.

[Deleted]

Irrespective of the number of votes cast, people like Syriza cannot be allowed to run a decently sized Western country.

[john07]

Dec 29, 2014 18:43:42 GMT joe said:

Irrespective of the number of votes cast, people like Syriza cannot be allowed to run a decently sized Western country.

What would you advocate doing?

Send a gunboat?

[Sibboleth]

Dec 29, 2014 18:43:42 GMT joe said:

Irrespective of the number of votes cast, people like Syriza cannot be allowed to run a decently sized Western country.

But its fine to allow ND and PASOK - fully fledged criminal conspiracies both - to do so? Is Greece 'Western' anyway?

[Sibboleth]

And what are you worried about anyway? If SYRZIA win and try to implement their programme then they will be bugcrushed by the ECB and all the other financial institutions before you can say 'the game is rigged'.

[finsobruce]

Dec 29, 2014 18:53:40 GMT john07 said:

Dec 29, 2014 18:43:42 GMT joe said:

Irrespective of the number of votes cast, people like Syriza cannot be allowed to run a decently sized Western country.

What would you advocate doing?

Send a gunboat?

Have we got any left? 

Syriza are already a coalition in any case and are going to find it pretty difficult to keep everyone in the tent whichever way they govern (if they win). But it would be good for Greek democracy if they did win as they might become a mainstream social democratic party,opposed by a more mainstream, less corrupt,  conservative party,marginalising the extremes (particularly the far right) . The ECB should try and assist that really.  But I fear this will turn out to be wishful thinking...

[Devil Wincarnate]

I'm not sure why so many people on the left seem to be such fans of Syriza, who don't appear to be a social democratic party to my eyes.  To my mind, ND and PASOK have indeed been a criminal cartel who spent a lot of money they didn't have to retain power- and Syriza seem to be a perfectly honest, non-criminal group trying to maintain the same economic incontinence that ND and PASOK were responsible for.  Would you genuinely want Labour to be more like Syriza? (I'll let Merseymike out of this one!)

I've no idea who I'd vote for in Greece though, that said.  I'd maybe go, with little confidence, for To Potami.  Although I'd probably just pack a suitcase and head for Munich or Melbourne.

[finsobruce]

Dec 29, 2014 20:32:53 GMT Devil Wincarnate said:

I'm not sure why so many people on the left seem to be such fans of Syriza, who don't appear to be a social democratic party to my eyes.  To my mind, ND and PASOK have indeed been a criminal cartel who spent a lot of money they didn't have to retain power- and Syriza seem to be a perfectly honest, non-criminal group trying to maintain the same economic incontinence that ND and PASOK were responsible for.  Would you genuinely want Labour to be more like Syriza? (I'll let Merseymike out of this one!)

I've no idea who I'd vote for in Greece though, that said.  I'd maybe go, with little confidence, for To Potami.  Although I'd probably just pack a suitcase and head for Munich or Melbourne.

Well they aren't at the moment, they are a coalition of all sorts on the left spectrum but if they win power things will have to change - one way or the other. Rather like the olive tree coalition and other incarnations (composed of all sorts) have  morphed into the democratic party in Italy. politicos and voters eventually realised it was that or endless rule by Berlusconi. 

[East Anglian Lefty]

Dec 29, 2014 20:32:53 GMT Devil Wincarnate said:

I'm not sure why so many people on the left seem to be such fans of Syriza, who don't appear to be a social democratic party to my eyes.  To my mind, ND and PASOK have indeed been a criminal cartel who spent a lot of money they didn't have to retain power- and Syriza seem to be a perfectly honest, non-criminal group trying to maintain the same economic incontinence that ND and PASOK were responsible for.  Would you genuinely want Labour to be more like Syriza? (I'll let Merseymike out of this one!)

I've no idea who I'd vote for in Greece though, that said.  I'd maybe go, with little confidence, for To Potami.  Although I'd probably just pack a suitcase and head for Munich or Melbourne.

Genuinely social democratic parties require political sanity, which Greece self-evidently doesn't have. Syriza are more likely to develop into such a party if such sanity reasserts itself than any other party (very definitely including PASOK.) In the absence of sanity, meanwhile, leftist purity (particularly when some of the most abhorrent elements are still blockading themselves away in the KKE) isn't an obviously more harmful approach than continued austerity. That's not to say it'll do any better than the latter, but an approach that settles Golden Dawn with a guaranteed 10-15% is one that demands an alternative.

[carlton43]

Beware Geeks bearing votes!

[No Offence Alan]

Dec 29, 2014 22:53:05 GMT East Anglian Lefty said:

Dec 29, 2014 20:32:53 GMT Devil Wincarnate said:

I'm not sure why so many people on the left seem to be such fans of Syriza, who don't appear to be a social democratic party to my eyes.  To my mind, ND and PASOK have indeed been a criminal cartel who spent a lot of money they didn't have to retain power- and Syriza seem to be a perfectly honest, non-criminal group trying to maintain the same economic incontinence that ND and PASOK were responsible for.  Would you genuinely want Labour to be more like Syriza? (I'll let Merseymike out of this one!)

I've no idea who I'd vote for in Greece though, that said.  I'd maybe go, with little confidence, for To Potami.  Although I'd probably just pack a suitcase and head for Munich or Melbourne.

Genuinely social democratic parties require political sanity, which Greece self-evidently doesn't have. Syriza are more likely to develop into such a party if such sanity reasserts itself than any other party (very definitely including PASOK.) In the absence of sanity, meanwhile, leftist purity (particularly when some of the most abhorrent elements are still blockading themselves away in the KKE) isn't an obviously more harmful approach than continued austerity. That's not to say it'll do any better than the latter, but an approach that settles Golden Dawn with a guaranteed 10-15% is one that demands an alternative.

Maybe the Greek voters would accept "sanity" i.e. a government that balances the books, more from a nominally left party than a nominally right/centre one.

[carlton43]

Let's face it. They have never run themselves very well. They need the Romans, Ottomans, Persians or military to do a proper job, because essentially they are a lazy, feckless, grasping, disorganized bunch of do-nothing no-hopers!

[finsobruce]

Dec 30, 2014 10:57:45 GMT carlton43 said:

Beware Geeks bearing votes!

but not if they have come to repair your computer....

[Deleted]

You have to question the sanity of anyone who buys a Greek Govt Bond. Parties talk about negotiating the bailout terms, as if they are in a position of strength, when in fact they are completely in the hands of their EU/German masters who have bailed them out in the name of the Euro project.

[finsobruce]

They've all gone to Melbourne.... www.smh.com.au/national/greece-is-the-word-for-new-migrants-20141111-11k5cb.html

Incidentally the first recorded Greek migration to Australia was in 1829 when six sailors convicted of piracy were transported there by the British.

[carlton43]

The massive mistake was letting them join the EU at all based on a document of complete and utter fiction .......... the economic statement of compliance to norms for entry. The EU would benefit by their withdrawal, and Greece would benefit even more.

[markgoodair]

Dec 30, 2014 12:48:03 GMT carlton43 said:

The massive mistake was letting them join the EU at all based on a document of complete and utter fiction .......... the economic statement of compliance to norms for entry. The EU would benefit by their withdrawal, and Greece would benefit even more.

They lied their way into the eurozone and are now paying the consequences.