Greek elections: Tsipras sworn in as prime minister, as Brussels blasts coalition
Syriza leader has been warned against reneging on bailout deal, after securing stunning success in Sunday’s general election
Updated
As Alexis Tsipras becomes prime minister for the second time, the mood on the streets of Athens is hardly euphoric. Helena Smith reports:
A huge storm, violent, dark and loud rumbled through Greece on Monday, thunder and lightning skittering through the skies. After Sunday’s general elections it was not lost on many: in Athens residents saw in the tempest a perfect metaphor, an omen even, that the old was finally being washed away.“People voted for change, for what they believed would be a fresh start,” said Lefteris Pavlis who owns a chain of eateries in the city centre. “They voted to give Alexis Tsipras a second chance which says a lot about the state of the opposition.”And yet the triumphant return to power of the young leftist and his Syriza party – this time pledging to overturn the old order of corruption, cronyism and vested interests - was not uppermost in the minds of most. What was uppermost was the daily grind of living.“There are problems,” sighed Vangelis Evangelides who sells nuts in the narrow streets beneath the ancient Acropolis. “Lots of problems. Will Syriza be able to solve them?” he shrugged. “Let’s hope they can.”
Almost six years into their worst financial crisis in modern times Greeks are exhausted, weary of self-examination, worn down by economic and political uncertainty and the depredations of austerity.On the streets Monday, outside banks and kiosks and shops, the mood, if anything, was strangely sombre. “What election?” quipped Panagiotis Katsanos who runs a kiosk on Mitropoleos street in Athens’ city centre. From 7 am to 1 pm around 150 people had stopped by to say ‘good morning’ or buy cigarettes, newspapers and soft-drinks but not a single person had mentioned the election. “I’m telling you not one person,” he exclaimed. “Nobody cares because the feeling is they are all the same, they all tell lies, so what’s the difference.”
In the vegetable stalls off Athinas street, vendors echoed that view. “Ten people this morning have had me weigh olives,” said Tassos Kounoupiotis. “We have got to that point where money is so tight. Politics and politicians belong to another world.”It was clear as pollsters took stock of the election result that voter apathy – the force behind an abstention rate that at almost 44% reached a record high – has now become the reality of Greece. Tsipras is the fifth prime minister to be voted into office since the crisis began. In winning his gamble for a fresh, four-year mandate he has emerged as the dominant figure in Greek political life but for many his victory does not reflect them.That, say analysts, will make implementation of the draconian reforms international creditors are demanding in return for a third rescue programme of €86bn in bailout funds harder still. The snap poll saw very little discussion of the spending cuts and reforms the new administration will now have to embark on. A Greek default and ejection from the euro zone will loom if they are not enforced,“It was incredible that a man who betrayed every single promise he ever made, who oversaw a period where the banks were closed and capital controls were enforced, who played such a big part in worsening the economy, was again voted in so spectacularly,” said Plavlis. “The controls have eased it’s true, but every small business is having a really hard time,” he lamented.But, he said, it was undeniable that the era of Tsipras was now upon Greece.“He has promised the sun will shine there are a lot of people out there who are going to be hoping today’s storm isn’t his first broken promise.”
On that note, we’ll close up for the evening. Thanks for all your comments, and we’ll be back again tomorrow.
Updated
Meanwhile Alexis Tsipras has officially been sworn in as prime minister.
Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis said the real winner in the weekend election is the troika of creditors, the ECB, EU and IMF. Writing in the Guardian he says:
During the past five years, troika-authored bills made it through parliament on ultra-slim majorities, giving their authors sleepless nights. Now, the bills necessary to prop up the third bailout will pass with comfortable majorities, as Syriza is committed to them. Almost every opposition MP (with the exception of the communists of KKE and the Nazis of Golden Dawn) is also on board.Of course, to get to this point Greek democracy has had to be deeply wounded (1.6 million Greeks who voted in the July referendum did not bother to turn up at the polling stations on Sunday) – no great loss to bureaucrats in Brussels, Frankfurt and Washington DC for whom democracy appears, in any case, to be a nuisance.Tsipras must now implement a fiscal consolidation and reform programme that was designed to fail. Illiquid small businesses, with no access to capital markets, have to now pre-pay next year’s tax on their projected 2016 profits. Households will need to fork out outrageous property taxes on non-performing apartments and shops, which they can’t even sell. VAT rate hikes will boost VAT evasion. Week in week out, the troika will be demanding more recessionary, antisocial policies: pension cuts, lower child benefits, more foreclosures.The prime minister’s plan for weathering this storm is founded on three pledges. First the agreement with the troika is unfinished business, leaving room for further negotiation of important details; second, debt relief will follow soon; and third Greece’s oligarchs will be tackled. Voters supported Tsipras because he appeared the most likely candidate to deliver on these promises. The trouble is, his capacity to do so is severely circumscribed by the agreement he has already signed.
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