New Radical Greek Leftist Leader Calls for Grexit

Τhe leftists’ ruling party of Syriza in Greece faces an existential crisis as its lawmakers and party members who do not agree with the new austerity program are leaving en masse.

Yesterday, 53 of the 201 members of the Central Committee of Syriza submitted their resignations, pointing to their joint resignation letter that as members of the Central Committee they can not serve the new austerity program.

The secession of one-fourth of the members of Syriza’s Central Committee follows the resignation of former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras last Thursday. Tspiras resigned after a rebellion in his own party over Greece’s new bailout program, which many Syriza lawmakers voted against in Parliament on August 14. His concessions went against his promise to repeal austerity measures.

Moving to a more radical agenda

On this basis, the members of Syriza who fled the leftist party today vehemently criticized Tsipras, stating that the recent developments “will be recorded with black letters in the history of the country but also in the history of the Greek Left.”

The 53 dissidents have already said that they will support the newly formed Popular Unity Party (Laiki Enotita). The leader of the new anti- bailout party is Panagiotis Lafazanis, who is the former Energy Minister of Greece and Syriza’s co-founder. Lafazanis openly blasted Tsipras decision to accept the Eurozone Summit on July 12 and voted against all the austerity bills submitted to the Greek parliament for the new rescue agreement.

On Monday, Lafazanis was granted the maximum three-day mandate from President Prokopis Pavlopoulos to form a government after the main opposition conservative New Democracy leader Vagelis Meimarakis failed to form one. Considering the fast turnaround, Lafazanis is expected to fail since the deadline is today. As a result, Greeks will going back to the ballot box on September 20 to vote for a new government for the second time in eight months.

CNBC

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.