Looks like Greece's socialist dreams are about take flight again - they spent the last four years under conservative governance and just elected a bunch of liberals.
From the Associated Press:
Greek radical left wins election, threatening market turmoil
A triumphant Alexis Tsipras told Greeks that his radical left Syriza party's win in Sunday's early general election meant an end to austerity and humiliation and that the country's regular and often fraught debt inspections were a thing of the past.
"Today the Greek people have made history. Hope has made history," Tsipras said in his victory speech at a conference hall in central Athens.
A bit more:
The 40-year-old Tsipras campaigned on promises of renegotiating the terms for Greece's 240 billion-euro ($270 billion) bailout, which has kept the debt-ridden country afloat since mid-2010.
To qualify for the cash, Greece has had to impose deep and bitterly-resented public spending, salary and pension cuts and repeated tax hikes. Its progress in reforms is reviewed by debt inspectors from the International Monetary Fund, European Commission and European Central Bank, collectively known as the "troika," before each installment of bailout funds can be disbursed.
"The verdict of the Greek people ends, beyond any doubt, the vicious circle of austerity in our country," Tsipras said. "The verdict of the Greek people, your verdict, annuls today in an indisputable fashion the bailout agreements of austerity and disaster. The verdict of the Greek people renders the troika a thing of the past for our common European framework."
So they were bankrupt. They had no money. They secured a $270B loan from various agencies in Europe. The money came with requirements for monitoring, budget cuts and a return to fiscal sensibility.
The free-spending Greeks did not like this and now they are going to bite the hand that fed them - that has kept their lights on and their government running. Who in their right mind will loan them any more money?
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