Austerity-Battered Greeks Favor Radical Left Before Vote

[Purveyor]

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- The winds of political change are coursing through austerity-weary Greece, but a financial whirlwind may lurk round the corner.

All opinion polls on Sunday's closely-watched national election agree: The radical left opposition Syriza party, which has vowed to rewrite the terms of Greece's international bailout, enjoys a lead of at least 4 percentage points over Prime Minister Antonis Samaras' conservatives. To govern - in a historic first for the Greek left - it may need the backing of a smaller party, but most seem willing to oblige.

"I want this government to go. It has disappointed me," said Babis Limnaios, 41, an Athens electrician who last voted in 2004 for the conservatives but will now back Syriza. "I want them to change everything - tax, health care, education."

Communist-rooted Syriza has alarmed markets and investors with its talk of massive debt forgiveness and riding roughshod over the bailout deals. But the mood is less fraught than in the last national election in 2012, when many saw a Syriza victory as a precursor to a possible Greek exit from the eurozone, the 19 nations that now share the euro currency.

more...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_GREECE_ELECTION?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-01-23-12-52-54

[geek tragedy]

1. How does Syriza intend to deliver on its promises with no money and without leaving the Euro?

They will have to balance the budget--after they default no one's going to lend to them in euros or drachmas.

So, if they increase spending they'll have to increase taxes too.

It's great to run on "austerity sucks" but without the ability to print their own money and devalue their own currency, they don't have a lot of options.

[quadrature]

6. they don't intend to deliver...

they intend to hold on to
power as long as they can

[polly7]

2. K&R.

Wishing them luck!

[jmowreader]

3. One of the biggest problems Greece has may not be fixable

In Greece, Tax Evasion is the national pastime. The best thing the US could do to bail them out of their dire straits is to send them a planeload of IRS auditors.

[Fearless]

4. We need them on Wall St. first.

[nxylas]

5. I'm fully expecting a "surprise" defeat

With lots of pundits musing on how the exit polls could have got it so wrong. Cynical, moi?