Elections in Greece: "Against Someone Else" Wins

All the Elections posts have to begin with the same disclaimer:
On the 25th January, Greeks voted overwhelmingly against their previous government remaining in power.
The against vote comes as no surprise and is largely justified. That government imposed austerity measures with the counter-promise of reform. The result? Little reform, an overwhelming public sector, 1.55 million unemployed *(the 5th highest in the world)...
In other words, 270 bill euro in aid, austerity, unemployment and... not much good to show for it.

Of course, Greece is better off now than it was 3 years ago, for sure. But not better enough...



Back to the question of whom the voters opted for: why Syriza?
The underlying message from many Syriza sympathisers had more to do with the German chancellor: "we can do it".

We voted the for guy no-one wants!


Just to prove to everyone that we can do it.

A happy camper: A. Tsipras, the leader of Greece's "radical left" party that won the Jan 2015 elections.

 Mr Tsipras, the new Prime Minister has oft mentioned Greece's pride and dignity. He has also spoken out against austerity, for and against the EU, for and against the EMU, for and against raising taxes, for and against a score of other things...*

Let's hope Greece doesn't lose whatever is left of its dignity during his rule.





*interestingly, he too campaigned against austerity. In this respect, he promised to re-hire all civil servants who are out of a job (very few), abolish cuts to public spending (medical, pensions, etc) summing to an estimated total of euro +3 bill/ quarter. Greece is still operating under deficit, so where is the money coming from???
Wait! It must be from the those Germans, the ones we voted against...!