Greece parliamentary election - September 20, 2015

[politicus]

25 Syriza MPs defect to create a new movement called "Popular Unity". Konstantopolou and Varoufakis didn't join them, for the moment at least. That makes it the third largest parliamentary group.

Fun fact: As the third largest party they will be given the chance to form a government once ND has had a shot.

[Yelnoc]

No, the Supreme Court president is caretaker PM.

Is that so? Strange. Why did he resign, in that case?

I'm copying below a detailed response from user Romanos on alternatehistory.com, who is a knowledgeable Greek.

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[Famous Mortimer]

If the anti Tsipras people control the CC, couldn't THEY take over SYRIZA and force Tsipras to start a break away?

[Simfan34]

Yes, how realistic of a possibility is this? Tsipras being expelled from his own party would be the most hilarious thing to happen in politics in a long time.

[Zinneke]

If the anti Tsipras people control the CC, couldn't THEY take over SYRIZA and force Tsipras to start a break away?

Because brand Syriza is toxic to the people who oppose the bailout. Voters don't keep up with stuff like this the way we do.

[Yelnoc]

If the anti Tsipras people control the CC, couldn't THEY take over SYRIZA and force Tsipras to start a break away?

I don't know enough about Syriza politics to say why, but the Left Platform discarded that option by founding their new party. That's probably for the best, since from their perspective the Syriza brand has become associated with capitulation.

[Kosmos]

If the anti Tsipras people control the CC, couldn't THEY take over SYRIZA and force Tsipras to start a break away?

Because brand Syriza is toxic to the people who oppose the bailout. Voters don't keep up with stuff like this the way we do.

Indeed, it would probably be difficult to go to the voters under the SYRIZA banner and advocate austerity. Hence why the Tsipras opponents (or many of them anyway) will leave if they haven't already.

The interesting question is if SYRIZA will win the election despite the split?

[politicus]

Just saw the list of the 25 Poular Unity MPs includes former ANEL deputy and well known crazy person Rachel Makri.. Probably one MP Tsipras is glad to see go.

Litsa Ammanatidou
Despoina Charalampidou
Kostas Delimitros
Vangelis Diamantopoulos
Ioanna Gaitani
Ilias Ioannidis
Costas Isychos
Vassilis Kiriakakis
Aglaia Kiritsi
Thomas Kotsias
Michalis Kritsotakis
Panagiotis Lafazanis
Costas Lapavitsas
Stathis Leoutsakos
Rachel Makri
Evgenia Ouzounidou
Thanasis Petrakos
Elena Psarrea
Stefanos Samoilis
Thanasis Skoumas
Ioannis Stathas
Dimitris Stratoulis
Alexandra Tsanaka
Zisis Zannas
Ioannis Zerdelis



Lets print a 100 billion Euros..

http://www.thetoc.gr/eng/politics/article/syriza-candidate-rachel-makri-we-will-print-100-bln-euros

[jaichind]

Bild reports an internal poll that shows

Syriza   28%
ND        25%
PU          8%

In which case Syriza will be some distance from majority.  If this comes to pass I assume it will be something like a Syriza-Potami-EK coalition.

[politicus]

Varoufakis: Tsipras gets to chose the candidates (and purge dissidents) if the election is held less than a year before the previous one.

http://greece.greekreporter.com/2015/08/24/varoufakis-if-im-convicted-of-high-treason-it-would-be-interesting/

[Simfan34]

Why doesn't he just cross the floor already?

[Zanas]

As a far left-winger, I can assure you that internal democracy in our kinds of organizations are never all the hype they are made to be... More often than not, a leader can expel whoever he wants and get away with it even if he controls only a small portion of the party. Democracy doesn't quite work, you see.

[Antonio the Sixth]

As a far left-winger, I can assure you that internal democracy in our kinds of organizations are never all the hype they are made to be... More often than not, a leader can expel whoever he wants and get away with it even if he controls only a small portion of the party. Democracy doesn't quite work, you see.

Yeah, in this regard, not that much has changed since Robert Michels' days.

[Simfan34]

!!!!!

YANNIS EXPELLED!

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The comment:

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http://en.enikos.gr/politics/34033,Syriza-minister-ingrate-Varoufakis-wont-be-on-party-lists-VIDEO-.html 

Ouch!



Also Konstantopoulou is forming her own party.

[Antonio the Sixth]

LOL, what a mess.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Also Konstantopoulou is forming her own party.

What does she think is wrong with Popular Unity?

[Simfan34]

Also Konstantopoulou is forming her own party.

What does she think is wrong with Popular Unity?

I get the impression it's personal. But it looks like her party, Popular Unity, Antarsya, and other parties will be in an alliance for the election.

[jaichind]

Wow.  So now it is really just the Tsipras party and SYRIZA in name only.

[RodPresident]

Also Konstantopoulou is forming her own party.

What does she think is wrong with Popular Unity?

I get the impression it's personal. But it looks like her party, Popular Unity, Antarsya, and other parties will be in an alliance for the election.

Then who'd be leader of Oxi Coalition? Varoufakis, Lafazanis or Konstantopoulou? Any chance of bringing KKE with them? Or even some moderates from XA?

[Simfan34]

KKE? Never.

[jaichind]

Tsipras has rule out a post-election coalition with ND, PASOK and Potami.    He has to hope then ANEL gets past the threshold.  And that might not be enough.  Of course KKE and XA are out.  So he is just left with EK or LAE.  It seems not likely on current polls that Sryiza + ANEL + 50 seat bonus will be a majority.  So in that case will Tsipras go with EK which would be a very awkward alliance. Or he can go with LAE which then begs the question of what is the point of the election.

[Simfan34]

Help me-- what is EK and LAE?

[jaichind]

Help me-- what is EK and LAE?

EK is  Union of Centrists which is a centrist liberal pro-EU/Euro party  They have been around for a while but could never break above the 3% threshold.  Now they are polling above last few polls 3%.

LAE is the Greek acronym for Popular Unity.

[Zanas]

For what it's worth, one poll has the following results :

Syriza 24
ND 22
XA 6
Potami 5.5
Pasok, KKE, LAE 4.5
EK 4
Anel 3.5
Others 5

That would put Syriza around 110-115 seats, not anywhere near a majority, and in need for probably 2, possibly 3, coalition partners, if we exclude ND.

[Simfan34]

Varoufakis not running, will instead lead "European network".