Former Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras was set to receive the formal mandate yesterday to form a government for the second time, after his left-wing SYRIZA party unexpectedly won a decisive victory in early national elections.
SYRIZA’s victory in Sunday’s election marks a personal triumph for Tsipras, who served as prime minister between January and last month — a tumultuous period that saw Greece’s future in the 19-country eurozone come under real threat and strict banking controls imposed.
At 41, Tsipras dominates Greek politics despite a major policy U-turn that saw him go against the anti-austerity platform that swept him to power in elections in January in return for a multibillion euro bailout that keeps Greece in the eurozone.
Photo: AP
Tsipras, who has seen off both the main, center-right opposition and his own party rebels, has said he will renew his pro-European coalition with the small, right-wing populist Independent Greeks (ANEL) party, which beat opinion polls to clear the 3 percent threshold required for representation in parliament.
His new government will have a small majority of just five seats.
With more than 99.7 percent of Sunday’s votes counted, Tsipras’ SYRIZA had 35.5 percent, while the center-right New Democracy trailed with 28.1 percent. However, in a sign of widespread discontent, more than four in 10 Greeks did not vote and the Nazi-inspired Golden Dawn remained the country’s third-strongest party with 7 percent.
Photo: AFP
Congratulating Tsipras, European Council President Donald Tusk yesterday said he hoped the election results “will now provide for the political stability necessary to face all the challenges at hand.”
As well as noting Greece’s own financial difficulties, Tusk highlighted the immigration crisis that Europe is struggling to deal with. Greece has registered 260,000 refugees and economic migrants this year alone.
The German government “will also work closely and in partnership with the new Greek government,” spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters in Berlin.
“This doesn’t just concern overcoming the debt crisis together, it also concerns the challenges posed by the refugee situation,” he said.
Tsipras’ government policy is likely to be very different to his previous one after his decision to back Greece’s third international bailout in July. By doing so, Tsipras effectively abandoned his previous pledge to bring the austerity that Greece has endured for years to an end.
In return for the 86 billion euro (US$96.7 billion) bailout from its partners in the eurozone, his government will have to impose further austerity, as well as undertake a series of economic reforms. Some of those demands were already legislated before Tsipras’ resignation last month that triggered the early vote.
During the campaign, Tsipras said any government led by him would honor the bailout, but would seek improvements.
“We will soften certain elements of the agreement, without breaking our [bailout] commitments,’’ former Greek alternative minister of revenue Dimitris Mardas said yesterday.
European creditors are expected to review Greece’s reforms next month, while the government will also have to draft its state budget for next year. It must also oversee a critical bank recapitalization program, without which depositors with more than 100,000 euros in their accounts would likely be forced to contribute.
Many Greeks voiced apprehension over the impending cutbacks, which follow a six-year crisis that has seen the Greek economy shrink a quarter and unemployment swell to more than 2 percent.
“I am happy that Tsipras was elected, but he should work,” said Kostas Tabaris, a 54-year-old mechanic. “He must [carry out] reforms, fix the crisis, help the poor, give presents, money to everyone.”
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique