Tsipras upsets the apfelkart

The newly-elected prime minister of Greece, Alex Tsipras, is really upsetting the apfelkart by actually honouring his election promises.

Earlier this week the Greek government issued a demand for the repayment of a loan the Nazis forced the Bank of Greece to issue during the German occupation of Greece during the second world war. The Greek Treasury has calculated the loan balance to be €162bn without interest.

Greece is in something of a Mexican standoff with the EU and the IMF who are telling Greece that they can't pull back from the devastating austerity imposed on the country by the international loan sharks at the ECB, EU and IMF whilst Greece is telling them they'll do what they damn well like and if they and if they want to save the €uro and the EU then they'd better start dancing to the Greek tune.

Syriza's hard left politics will never drag Greece out of the financial mire it's been in for most of the last century and all of this one but their firm stance with the loan sharks will at least recover their sovereignty and dignity.

Victory for Syriza in Greek elections

The anti-austerity Syriza party looks to have won the Greek elections by a sizeable margin.

Exit polls suggest that Syriza got between 36% and 38% of the vote with second placed New Democracy trailing by 10%. Syriza's vote share means they will secure between 149 and 151 seats and they need the 151 for an outright majority. Just over 40% of the votes have been counted so far.

Syriza is a soft eurosceptic party, opposed to EU austerity and the German takeover of the EU. They support continued membership of the €uro but not at the expense of Greek sovereignty.

There are going to be some sleepless nights in presidential palaces across Europe tonight.

Greek eurosceptics could take power in early elections next month

Greek MPs have voted to reject the presidential candidate put forward by prime minister Antonis Samaras, causing fresh elections in January.

Stavros Dimas needed the support of 180 Greek MPs but only managed 168. Samaras was hoping to get the support of the Independent Greeks and Democratic Left for Dimas but failed.

The eurosceptic Syriza party is currently leading in the opinion polls and with other eurosceptic parties make up over 50% of the indicated vote. Greece is the second most eurosceptic country in the EU after the UK and the punishing austerity imposed on the country means that there is a very good chance that Greece could end up beating the UK to be the first country since Greenland in 1985 to leave the EU.

Pasok/ND coalition takes a battering in the polls

Results of flooding in for the Greek elections and as expected, Pasok and New Democracy have taken a particularly brutal battering.

The current largest party, Pasok, is currently in third place behind the left wing coalition party, Syriza.  New Democracy is clinging tenuously to the lead, probably more by virtue of being the only established right wing party in Greece than because they're doing something right.  Independent Greeks and the Communist Party (KKE) are in fourth and fifth with the hardline Golden Dawn in sixth and newcomers, Democratic Left (Dimar), in seventh.

As it stands, with Laos and Ecologist Greens just shy of the 3% required to get a seat in the Greek Parliament (Laos is being punished for agreeing to join the last coalition before changing its mind), it would take a coalition of all of the opposition parties to keep Pasok and New Democracy from forming a coalition.  Such a coalition would probably spell the end for Greece's involvement in the €uro and maybe even in the EU - something that the Greeks should be hoping for as the only way for them to get themselves out of their current mess.

Whoever ends up forming a government in Greece next week, one thing is for certain: the Greek parliament is going to be full of extremists.  They'll have representation from the Stalinist KKE (Communist Party), the Greek equivalent of the BNP (Golden Dawn) and other minority far left parties.  It doesn't bode well for a stable Greece but they've been in a state of virtual anarchy for so long now, probably nobody would notice!

For an excellent near realtime map of how things stand in Greece as the results come in, check out this from Infographics.