Greek Election, 2015 September 20

Well, that was a thing that happened. A month ago, due to the defection of about two dozen members of his coalition, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (SYRIZA) resigned, and a new election was called. Voting took place yesterday.

SYRIZA are back in, with only four fewer SYRIZA seats and basically the same coalition (with ANEL, who lost three seats but can still get the coalition over the 150 needed for a a majority). The two dozen breakaway members who formed “Popular Unity” to run on leaving the Eurozone didn’t get in.

Some new “Centrist” party (not To Potami, another one, “Union of Centrists”) suddenly made the 3% threshold and now has seats. The rest of the parties are about where they were before. The whole thing is very similar to the January election result, but with a slimmer majority for the coalition (155/300 instead of 162/300).

Tsipras says he wants to clean up corruption and clientelism in Greece. Still trying to make the Eurozone work, which is interesting.

So Tsipras held on, and apparently about half the country are willing to stick with him and SYRIZA even if he accepted a humiliating deal from Europe.

Interesting.

Yes it is interesting foolsguinea, seemed the Greeks would punish anyone who accepted a deal from Europe, but just some months later, that same prime minister is back at his old job. I only wish Syriza had gotten more seats and hence a majority.