Greek PM Tsipras sacks leftist party rebels in reshuffle

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: Reuters

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras sacked left-wing Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis and two deputy ministers on Friday as he reshuffled his cabinet following a party revolt against a tough new bailout deal adopted this week.

The 40 year-old prime minister moved to clear out the rebels after 39 Syriza hardline lawmakers refused to back the government over the measures, which were demanded by European partners as a pre-condition for beginning talks over a new bailout.

The main economic ministries remain unchanged, with Euclid Tsakalotos remaining in place at the finance ministry and George Stathakis staying at the economy ministry.

But Labor Minister Panos Skourletis, one of Tsipras' closest allies, will replace Lafazanis in the key energy portfolio, where he will be responsible for sensitive privatization dossiers. Administrative Reforms Minister George Katrougalos will take over at the labor ministry.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/17/us-eurozone-greece-reshuffle-list-idUSKCN0PR1Z820150717?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter

[Warpy]

1. OK, now I really wonder what his price was.

Sacking the leftists in a leftist coalition while overturning the will of the people might not turn out to be viable long term strategies.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Tis been a head spinning sequence of events and promises.....

which once again remind me.....ignore what they say, watch what they do.

[Igel]

5. "The will of the people"? You mean that horrible referendum?

Yes, they voted down that particular package.

Or they voted down austerity and rejected any bailout.

Or they just voted down austeriy, and wanted a bailout on their terms and none others.

Or they voted down the Eurozone. But not debt relief. Or maybe with debt relief.

Or they voted down the EU.

Or they voted just to express defiance and resentment. Or to back Tsipras he wanted a better deal and a stronger bargaining position.

You ask 30 people, you get all kinds of answers. People were upset that Tsipras didn't exit the Eurozone. Even though he said that wasn't what he wanted ... a day or two before the referendum.

But most polls show that about the same percentage of the population backed the set of laws passed Wednesday night as legislators voted for it. That's pretty much "the will of the people." At least the Greeks. Perhaps we have some in-group definition of "the people" that excludes those we don't agree with.

[dharmamarx]

10. People knew what they were voting against....

Everyone knew they were voting against an austerian budget, and they all knew that the risk of voting against that austerian budget would likely earn them the wrath of the Troika with grexit possibly following. Most of them may not have wanted grexit, but they understood the risks of their decision. Many people still like Tsipras because he is not corrupt, and he is obviously well intentioned. But in a few months when they recognize that he signed them up for indefinite austerity, they're going to replace him with someone with more of a fighting spirit. They have no choice.

[brooklynite]

2. Well, THAT'LL teach em...

...what right did they have to believe him when he said he was going to fight against more austerity?

[ananda]

15. How many of us believed that Obama would have our backs ...

... and then got sold down the river with Holder's refusal to
after banking criminals and Obama's insistence on the horrible
TPP?

[brooklynite]

16. Except that Obama did campaign on either of those things...

He was a mainstream liberal Democrat; nothing more.

[uhnope]

4. the Syriza guys that made impossible promises, cozied up to the fascist Putin, and then blamed

everyone else for Greece's problems. Yanis fled before the shit really hit the fan, now his comrades are joining him.

[Comrade Grumpy]

6. Nobody fled. The radicals were forced out.

[magical thyme]

7. actually Yanis was the first one sacked. The night of the referendum, he proposed a plan to leave

the Euro, and made public comments about wishing they'd instituted a parallel currency a week earlier. As a result, his leaving was 'resign or be fired.'

There was one sticking point on the Troika offers that he could not accept, and that was the lack of debt write-down because without it, the debt would remain unpayable and Greece's hole would just become deeper.

He says that the reason Tsipras rejected the plan and backed out of leaving the euro was because Yanis couldn't guarantee that it would be a success. Iow, Tsipras lacked the courage to make the necessary change.

Had the Troika included that IMF-recommendation in the proposals, this would all have gone down very differently.

[cstanleytech]

8. I think they will have no choice but to eventually take the IMF recommendation and either take a

a severe haircut on the amount owed or agree to a longer repayment plan, otherwise there just isnt any way Greece will be able to meet its obligations even with the combination of reforms and cuts that they will be doing.

[magical thyme]

11. Schauble wants them out. He says temporarily, but in 2012 he said he wanted them out period.

and Merkel seems to be taking direction from him. If they continue to refuse, then that signals they intend to crush Greece until it leaves, with or without assistance.

Time will tell.

[Fred Sanders]

9. Had to be done. The Greek people are solidly behind Tspiras and the terms of a deal that finally

taxes the wealthy and closes tax loopholes....there is some sugar for the bitter pill.

[pampango]

12. "The Greek debt crisis is providing fuel for the country’s neo-Nazi movement Golden Dawn"

The latest EU bailout deal for Greece offers so little in the way of economic relief for the average Greek citizen that it risks emboldening a growing neo-Nazi movement that is casting its gangs of thugs as saviours of the poor.

As supporters of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party set up “Greeks only” food banks to help feed the unemployed, the leftist coalition government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras​ is facing an uphill battle to sell yet another version of austerity to an already traumatised nation.

Tsipras’ Syriza Party and their coalition allies came to power riding a wave of nationalistic revolt over EU-imposed austerity measures, buoyed by heady, if unrealistic, popular expectations for change. Syriza’s capitulation to EU negotiators this week leaves the deep-seated resentment and frustration that austerity, poverty and widespread unemployment have stoked casting around for alternative avenues of political expression. With a weak political centre that supports the EU bailout, the anti-austerity mantle and all the emotion it carries could swiftly default to the political far right. Golden Dawn, which opposed the EU package, is flexing its muscles in the wings.

The neo-Nazi presence in Parliament has given oxygen to overt racism. On the streets, such sentiment is playing out in violent attacks on immigrants and street battles between far left groups and Golden Dawn-aligned gangs. In my own research I uncovered countless incidents in which fascists and neo-Nazis were protected by the riot police during clashes, or even had the use of a riot police van to hide their rocks, bricks and baseball bats.

http://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/the-greek-debt-crisis-is-providing-fuel-for-the-countrys-neo-nazi-movement-golden-dawn/

[geek tragedy]

13. This guy makes Mitt Romney look resolute and principled. nt

[DCBob]

14. So the "leftist hero" now switches teams.

I am not surprised. He knows that his brash anti-austerity talk was just that.. all talk. He now has to face reality actually get things done.

[dembotoz]

17. Here comes the new boss same as the old boss..guess we were fooled again