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May 31st, 2012

Greek Uncertainty

On May 6th, the Syriza party, which means “Coalition of the Radical Left” surprisingly came in second in the Greek national election with 16% of the vote. Their leader, Alexis Tsipras, has vowed to cancel the European bailout deal, tax the rich, delay debt payments and cut the defense budget. He would also nationalize the banks, cancel labour reform and pension cuts and re-hire 100,000 public sector employees. The two historically dominant parties, New Democracy party and Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) collectively received only 33% of the popular vote but missed forming the government by only 2 seats.