'bailout parties no longer have a majority...to vote for measures that plunder the country'

[marmar]

(Bloomberg) Greece’s Syriza party leader Alexis Tsipras, charged with forming a government, told his pro-bailout counterparts they must renounce support for the European Union- led rescue if there is to be any chance of forging a coalition.

Tsipras said he expected Antonis Samaras of New Democracy and Evangelos Venizelos, the former finance minister who leads the Pasok party, to send a letter to the EU revoking their pledges to implement austerity measures by the time he meets with them tomorrow to discuss forming a coalition. Samaras said he would not do so, and would support a minority government if necessary.

“The bailout parties no longer have a majority in parliament to vote for measures that plunder the country,” Tsipras told reporters in Athens today after receiving the coalition-building mandate from President Karolos Papoulias. “There will be no 11 billion euros ($14 billion) of additional austerity measures; 150,000 jobs will not be cut.”

Political wrangling after the inconclusive May 6 election has reignited European concerns over Greece’s ability to hold to the terms of a second, 130 billion-euro rescue. Parliament is split down the middle on the two bailout deals negotiated since May 2010, as the country at the epicenter of the debt crisis again risks exit from the euro. ......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-08/greek-government-mandate-passes-to-syriza-after-samaras-fails.html

[AnotherMcIntosh]

1. Oh, the bailout parties that have plundered Greece.