New Greek elections

[MERIZoC]

What promises can't they deliver on? Along with Potami, social policy will be easy, and ANEL can help them get rid of austerity.

ANEL is notoriously socially conservative, social policy isn't going to be any form of a priority for this government.

Syriza doesn't need ANEL though. All they need is a couple of votes from Potami.

[Mike the Progressive]

What promises can't they deliver on? Along with Potami, social policy will be easy, and ANEL can help them get rid of austerity.

Can't deliver if you haven't got the cash.

Yep. And who the hell is going to loan them money unless they heed to austerity? When Greece frustrated by the left embraces the extreme right, don't come crying.

[Geilinor]

What promises can't they deliver on? Along with Potami, social policy will be easy, and ANEL can help them get rid of austerity.

Can't deliver if you haven't got the cash.

And this is going to be a problem.

[Communist EU]

ANEL is notoriously socially conservative, social policy isn't going to be any form of a priority for this government.

Syriza doesn't need ANEL though. All they need is a couple of votes from Potami.

Or, I don't know, from KKE.

[Vashtanaraada]

SYRIZA and the KKE should unite.

SYRIZA has Trotskyist and Maoist minorities, I'm sure they could have common ground.

[Bandwagon]

SYRIZA have shown their true colours by going in to a coalition with ANEL. I'm from fricking Ireland and they seem to actually have conservative policies. Their policies don't seem to talk about social policies at all. It's all just economic, economic, economic.

[Martean]

Do you think Tsipras will have any difficulty, taking into account he has got 149/300 seats on the parliament, not mentioning some Golden Dawn MP's are jailed (and they are not able to vote) and that, to pass social policies (Gay marriage, secularization) they have KKE, To Potami, and PASOK. And to pass anti-austerity measures they have ANEL, and maybe KKE supports their more radical reforms.

The problem comes from the Troika, not from the parliament.

[Martean]

SYRIZA have shown their true colours by going in to a coalition with ANEL. I'm from fricking Ireland and they seem to actually have conservative policies. Their policies don't seem to talk about social policies at all. It's all just economic, economic, economic.

Well, you know, it's Greece, maybe the economy is the most important thing right now.

[Charlotte Ryberg]

I think that right/left differences have to be put aside for something this critical. I see SYRIZA/ANEL as Greece's most crucial chance to rethink the current system both nationally and internationally. Again, no words can explain the number of policies that need modernisation, and much of that is more than just money, but public trust in the government in general.

In short, SYRIZA/ANEL probably has to "flip the board" and restart in some areas: the police forces definitely have to start over with people who are not going to marginalise minorities, conscription has to go because if one isn't interested in the army then why not invest in his career of choice since everything counts, and ID cards have to go since birth certificates, passports and driving licences do the same job: there's no need for duplication there.

SYRIZA/ANEL is an odd combination, but we've only cleared the board for the big challenges ahead, and I want a part in that.

[Parti Ouvrier]

I think that right/left differences have to be put aside for something this critical. I see SYRIZA/ANEL as Greece's most crucial chance to rethink the current system both nationally and internationally. Again, no words can explain the number of policies that need modernisation, and much of that is more than just money, but public trust in the government in general.

In short, SYRIZA/ANEL probably has to "flip the board" and restart in some areas: the police forces definitely have to start over with people who are not going to marginalise minorities, [b]conscription has to go because if one isn't interested in the army then why not invest in his career of choice since everything counts[/b]<snip>

With ANEL as a coalition partner? Good luck with that.

[Nortrom]

SYRIZA and the KKE should unite.

SYRIZA has Trotskyist and Maoist minorities, I'm sure they could have common ground.

KKE excluded the possibility to cooperate with Syriza a long time ago.

For them, Syriza is a pretentious "barely leftist party that bows to the capital like everyone else".

Also KKE is strongly anti-NATO and anti-EU and therefore can't cooperate with any other party. These guys strictly follow old-school Socialism.

[Parti Ouvrier]

Do you think Tsipras will have any difficulty, taking into account he has got 149/300 seats on the parliament, not mentioning some Golden Dawn MP's are jailed (and they are not able to vote) and that, to pass social policies (Gay marriage, secularization) they have KKE, To Potami, and PASOK. And to pass anti-austerity measures they have ANEL, and maybe KKE supports their more radical reforms.

The problem comes from the Troika, not from the parliament.

If that's the case, why have ANEL as a coalition partner then?

Well, you know, it's Greece, maybe the economy is the most important thing right now.

You're contradicting your previous post.

[Nortrom]

SYRIZA have shown their true colours by going in to a coalition with ANEL. I'm from fricking Ireland and they seem to actually have conservative policies. Their policies don't seem to talk about social policies at all. It's all just economic, economic, economic.

It's going to be interesting. ANEL is a far-right party and has more common ground with ND or even Golden Dawn than Syriza. I have no idea how these two groups will cooperate.

[Corunia and Mironor]

Commienazis!

(Image)

They are the same damn thing. Both are Socialists. Nazism = National Socialism.

Just because something calls itself Socialism doesn't mean it IS Socialism. Both the Stalin's Russia and Hitler's Germany were just totalitarian genocidal personality cults, having absolutely jack shit to do with ACTUAL Socialism.

[Vashtanaraada]

They are the same damn thing. Both are Socialists. Nazism = National Socialism.

Just because something calls itself Socialism doesn't mean it IS Socialism. Both the Stalin's Russia and Hitler's Germany were just totalitarian genocidal personality cults, having absolutely jack shit to do with ACTUAL Socialism.

IF NATIONAL SOCIALISM WAS SOCIALISM IT'D BE CALLED SOCIAL NATIONALISM YOU FOOL!
It's a nationalist ideology, not socialist.

[Kalifati Arab shqiptar]

So what does this Syriza want to do, break all diplonatic relations and build 1 million bunkers like Enver Hoxha did. We, Albanians have a saying when people intentioally do the wrong thing "They were searching for the bad things with a candle," but in Greece's case " they were looking for it with a searchlight."

Greece made a huge step backwards and the only hope is that this guy won't raise the Greek nationalist cause and create tensions in Balkans.

[Geilinor]

So what does this Syriza want to do, break all diplonatic relations and build 1 million bunkers like Enver Hoxha did. We, Albanians have a saying when people intentioally do the wrong thing "They were searching for the bad things with a candle," but in Greece's case " they were looking for it with a searchlight."

Greece made a huge step backwards and the only hope is that this guy won't raise the Greek nationalist cause and create tensions in Balkans.

Break all diplomatic relations? No, where'd you get that idea?

[Calimera II]

Just because something calls itself Socialism doesn't mean it IS Socialism. Both the Stalin's Russia and Hitler's Germany were just totalitarian genocidal personality cults, having absolutely jack shit to do with ACTUAL Socialism.

IF NATIONAL SOCIALISM WAS SOCIALISM IT'D BE CALLED SOCIAL NATIONALISM YOU FOOL!
It's a nationalist ideology, not socialist.

No matter what, Social Nationalism is pure shit.

[Kalifati Arab shqiptar]

So what does this Syriza want to do, break all diplonatic relations and build 1 million bunkers like Enver Hoxha did. We, Albanians have a saying when people intentioally do the wrong thing "They were searching for the bad things with a candle," but in Greece's case " they were looking for it with a searchlight."

Greece made a huge step backwards and the only hope is that this guy won't raise the Greek nationalist cause and create tensions in Balkans.

Break all diplomatic relations? No, where'd you get that idea?

I don't think he wants to pay the debt back. I don't think a marxist like Western Europe's imperialists.

[Calimera II]

I don't know what you exactly want but look this GDP graph for example: http://www.tradingeconomics.com/estonia/gdp.

If you want something else then I'll post it here.

I believe that Estonia's doing fine. Sources for Krugman claiming austerity wasn't going to work in Estonia, is what I meant. I can't find any on the NY Times, where he publishes. Similarly for Argentina. There is one article that says he held up Argentina as a model for Greece but doesn't provide any link to where. I'm not saying he didn't say these things, I'd just like to see where.

Here you are: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/0 ... -way/?_r=0

Matt Yglesias, who just spent time in Argentina, writes about the lessons of that country’s recovery following its exit from the one-peso-one-dollar “convertibility law”. As he says, it’s a remarkable success story, one that arguably holds lessons for the euro zone.

I’d just add something else: press coverage of Argentina is another one of those examples of how conventional wisdom can apparently make it impossible to get basic facts right. We keep getting stories about Ireland’s recovery when there is, in fact, no recovery — but there should be, darn it, because they've done the “right” thing, so that’s what we’ll report.

And conversely, articles about Argentina are almost always very negative in tone — they’re irresponsible, they’re renationalizing some industries, they talk populist, so they must be going very badly. Never mind this: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/201 ... log480.jpg

[Mike the Progressive]

Just because something calls itself Socialism doesn't mean it IS Socialism. Both the Stalin's Russia and Hitler's Germany were just totalitarian genocidal personality cults, having absolutely jack shit to do with ACTUAL Socialism.

IF NATIONAL SOCIALISM WAS SOCIALISM IT'D BE CALLED SOCIAL NATIONALISM YOU FOOL!
It's a nationalist ideology, not socialist.

Actually, national socialism in Germany had some socialist elements (ever hear of Rohm?), but Hitler wasn't an ideologue.

[Baltenstein]

SYRIZA and the KKE should unite.

SYRIZA has Trotskyist and Maoist minorities, I'm sure they could have common ground.

Syriza originally started as a break-away faction from KKE (because of the latters unconditional support for the Soviet Union's invasion of Prague) and they have been considered "class traitors" by KKE ever since. Them becoming one party again is as likely as a re-unification of the Catholic and the Orthodox church.

[New Chalcedon]

I'm very disappointed that Golden Dawn didn't win, but maybe if Syriza does bad enough, it will be a golden opportunity for them to fill a vacuum of despair if Greece goes further downhill. Golden Dawn can ride out this storm and make a comeback if they don't repeat the same mistakes.

Right....because what Europe needs is another round of Fascism.

It worked out so well last time!

[Mike the Progressive]

I'm very disappointed that Golden Dawn didn't win, but maybe if Syriza does bad enough, it will be a golden opportunity for them to fill a vacuum of despair if Greece goes further downhill. Golden Dawn can ride out this storm and make a comeback if they don't repeat the same mistakes.

Right....because what Europe needs is another round of Fascism.

It worked out so well last time!

I mean, people got jobs?

[New Chalcedon]

SYRIZA and the KKE should unite.

SYRIZA has Trotskyist and Maoist minorities, I'm sure they could have common ground.

KKE is, as far as I'm aware, hardline Stalinist. They haven't changed much since the days they were taking potshots at the junta's thugs.

Right....because what Europe needs is another round of Fascism.

It worked out so well last time!

I mean, people got jobs?

-spit take-

Really? You're using that old saw? They got jobs...making stuff to blow their neighbours up with!