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FrodosPet

(5,169 posts)
1. Greece anti-bailout leader Tsipras made prime minister
Mon Jan 26, 2015, 03:40 PM
Jan 2015
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30981950

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What unites Greece's new coalition partners is fierce opposition to budget cuts. Alexis Tsipras and Independent Greeks leader Panos Kammenos are anti-bailout to the core, frequently hitting out at the architects of austerity in Berlin and Brussels and pledging a new economic path. But that is where their common ground ends. In other areas, the two are unlikely bedfellows.

One is a socially liberal leftist, lambasting the "old faces" of Greek politics. The other is a hardline right-winger on issues such as immigration - and has been around in previous governments for some time. So why would Syriza join forces with Independent Greeks?

Possibly because others refused - or were deemed too soft on the bailout. The River, a new, broadly centrist party which some expected to be the coalition partner, made clear it opposed Syriza's hard rhetoric towards Berlin.

The problem for Mr Tsipras is that many of his own supporters revile Mr Kammenos's conservatism and will be frustrated by the choice. And disappointing his supporters, to whom he has pledged so much, is not something Greece's new prime minister wants to repeat.

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