Greek election - January 25th 2015

[EPG]

Merkel must give Greeks free money and applaud far-left parties or she is a bully.

Really? We can do better than this.

[EPG]

I think 37-39% would get SYRIZA a majority, depending on how many minor parties meet the 3% threshold. They are closing up on that range in current polling. It's funny that one of the biggest critiques of FPTP in Canada is that a party can get a majority with under 40% of the vote (hence 60+% "voted against them") yet Greece's proportional system can give the same result because of the 50 seat bonus.

I'm sure the list-system partisan would say "the 50-seat bonus means Greece does not have a proportional system".

[EPG]

It is a negotiating tactic - not to say that it won't happen, but it's useful and important to say whatever the outcome, and what else can Germany actually say - that they'll give Greece whatever it takes to keep them in? Now if you think it helps SYRIZA and that the German government is at least as intelligent as the average Atlas Forum poster, what does that tell us about Germany's desired outcome? Probably that they don't care whether the government is SYRIZA or New Democracy leading a coalition with the centre-left.

[EPG]

300 academics from around the world have signed a petition where they express their support for SYRIZA and request that Greek people are allowed to vote freely without any outside pressure or influences.

Logically, if they want no outside influences, they must be conceding that they themselves are totally uninfluential. In which case, why bother writing a letter?

[EPG]

300 academics from around the world have signed a petition where they express their support for SYRIZA and request that Greek people are allowed to vote freely without any outside pressure or influences.

Logically, if they want no outside influences, they must be conceding that they themselves are totally uninfluential. In which case, why bother writing a letter?

They are obviously referring to the veiled (or in some cases very direct) threats by EU and German officials of Greece exiting the Eurozone if SYRIZA is elected.  And I couldn't agree more with them.  If Greece is still an independent country they should be allowed to vote for whoever is best for them, not for Merkel or Germany.

Of course they are "allowed" - as if Germany can "allow" or "not allow" foreigners to have elections! - but these people are engaged in a huge misprision of sovereignty, which seems to break down logically as:
1. Greeks can elect whomever they like and are sovereign, therefore
2. It would be a violation of Greek sovereignty to disagree in any way with its elected government in negotiations.
But you could easily apply the same logic to Angela Merkel. Odd that Chomsky doesn't see it that way!

[EPG]

2. It would be a violation of Greek sovereignty to disagree in any way with its elected government in negotiations.

Don't make sh**t up please.  Nowhere in the appeal does it say that.

Good thing I didn't say they said that, right? But it's patently obvious that this is the petty logical fallacy leading them to jump to the defence of Greece's democratic right to whatever it wants in negotiations, but not Germany's

[EPG]

Maybe Greece should have kept borrowing massively to run massive government deficits, but it's not clear that anyone at all would have been willing to lend massively in that context. The usual solution is to print money in a monetary devaluation that cuts their international purchasing power, but they didn't want to quit the euro, and they still don't, and as it happened the internal devaluation didn't increase their exports.

[EPG]

I think you are right.

[EPG]

KKE and SYRIZA do have a reasonably significant policy difference over continued membership of the euro. I am normally delighted to revel in pointless sectarianism among the far left. But in this case it seems like euro membership is a really important question for Greece to answer.

[EPG]

I feel it is only fair to point out that Fianna Fáil is affiliated to ALDE, and that their only MEP elected in 2014 was expelled from the parliamentary party for joining ECR.

[EPG]

The more I think about it, the more I believe Tsipras knew exactly what he was doing by immediately seeking support from ANEL. This sent an immediate signal to the world that his government will take a hard and uncompromising line against austerity, and that he intends to be negotiating with Europe from a position of strength.

Yes, exactly. This election was not about gay marriage or Occupy Wall Street, it was about how hard Greece should negotiate for money from Europe. The outcome is best understood as a nationalist government. That is why they do not fear singing "we'll take Berlin", or visiting graves of the victims of German wars, which actions are inflammatory to Greece's creditors. Open and evident conflict with Europe serves SYRIZA and ANEL.

[EPG]

The more I think about it, the more I believe Tsipras knew exactly what he was doing by immediately seeking support from ANEL. This sent an immediate signal to the world that his government will take a hard and uncompromising line against austerity, and that he intends to be negotiating with Europe from a position of strength.

Yes, exactly. This election was not about gay marriage or Occupy Wall Street, it was about how hard Greece should negotiate for money from Europe. The outcome is best understood as a nationalist government. That is why they do not fear singing "we'll take Berlin", or visiting graves of the victims of German wars, which actions are inflammatory to Greece's creditors. Open and evident conflict with Europe serves SYRIZA and ANEL.

Huh? How is that inflammatory?

Its a shot across the bow of Merkel and the Germans.

Man, if the Germans are really going to get all het up about Tsipiras commemorating the victims of actual honest-to-god Nazis then... wow, just wow.  

Come on, everybody, let's not play dumb. You understand the symbolism here. SYRIZA commemorates the resistance, asserting its continuity with that movement, while it promises to fight Berlin. This draws a parallel between contemporary Germans' role in Greece and that of the Nazis.

[EPG]

Come on, everybody, let's not play dumb. You understand the symbolism here. SYRIZA commemorates the resistance, asserting its continuity with that movement, while it promises to fight Berlin. This draws a parallel between contemporary Germans' role in Greece and that of the Nazis.

I had originally thought they were just sticking it to Golden Dawn.  If they are trying to stick it to Merkel & co... and that theory does upon relection make sense... it would still be bad optics for the Germans to complain.  Well, more than merely bad "optics".

Yes, and yes, the Germans won't complain; it doesn't matter, they're not the ultimate audience (SYRIZA is telling Greeks that they will fight the troika like the resistance fought the Nazis). Oh dear, it appears that my paranoia is contagious!