What Iceland’s election tells us about post-crisis European politics

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Kevin Lees

Iceland was supposed to be different. In allowing its banks to fail, neo-Keynesian economists have argued, Iceland avoided the fate of Ireland, which nationalized its banks and now faces a future with a very large public debt.  By devaluing its currency, the krónur, Iceland avoided the fate of countries like Estonia and others in southern Europe [...]

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Tsipras predicts Greek debt haircut after German elections

Posted on January 22, 2013 by Kevin Lees

The great thing about Washington, D.C. is the flow of visitors we see from throughout the world and the relative access to top officials through top-notch organizations such as the Brookings Institution, which hosted Greek opposition leader Alexis Tsipras for a 90-minute session Tuesday. The beleaguered Greek economy has receded from headlines somewhat since the [...]

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Greek government, troika reach agreement on Greek bailout

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Kevin Lees

It seems all but done — Greece’s government and the ‘troika’ of the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission have reached an agreement on the latest disbursement of funds that Greece needs to finance government operations, in exchange for a series of budget cuts and labor market reforms.  In an additional [...]

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Samaras ‘negotiations’ with Berlin not going so swell

Posted on August 27, 2012 by Kevin Lees

It didn’t go so well for Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras on his visits with European Union leaders in Berlin.  His plea for more time to come up with cuts to the Greek budget is being met with stony nonchalance from both German chancellor Angela Merkel (pictured above right, with Samaras) and French president François [...]

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How many days (weeks) away are we from another Greek solvency crisis?

Posted on August 9, 2012 by Kevin Lees

When the world last left Greece, it was breathing a sigh of relief upon the news that Antonis Samaras would be able to cobble together a coalition following a narrow win in the June elections — the second such election in as many months. Samaras (pictured above), now a little over six weeks into his [...]

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Is Bavarian finance minister Markus Söder really the most dangerous politician in Europe?

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Kevin Lees

Der Spiegel ranks the top 10 most dangerous politicians in Europe, and you might be surprised at who comes out on top. The piece targets Markus Söder, the finance minister of Bavaria since November 2011: The politician from the [Christlich-Soziale Union in Bayern (CSU, the Christian Social Union)], the conservative sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian [...]

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No country for old men

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Kevin Lees

It’s not been the best week for the new Greek government. Later this week, the key decision-makers of the European Union will be engaged in the latest attempt at ending the eurozone’s crisis at a conference in Rome. But the new Greek prime minister won’t be there. And neither will his finance minister, a post that [...]

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Samaras pieces together coalition after ND places first in Greek election

Posted on June 19, 2012 by Kevin Lees

The rest of the eurozone — indeed, the rest of the world — may have breathed a sigh of relief Sunday when it turned out that the pro-bailout parties appeared likely to secure a majority of the seats in the second of two highly divisive parliamentary elections in Greece. As shown above, New Democracy (Νέα Δημοκρατία) [...]

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Big weekend for France, Greece and Egypt

Posted on June 16, 2012 by Kevin Lees

It’s another big weekend for elections! Voters in Egypt go to the polls today and tomorrow to choose a president in the final runoff between the Muslim brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi and Ahmed Shafiq, a former Air Force commander and the final prime minister of former president Hosni Mubarak, in what is seen as a Hobson’s choice [...]

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Post-’Spailout’ climate pulls Samaras even closer to SYRIZA’s position

Posted on June 13, 2012 by Kevin Lees

As the second Greek legislative campaign in as many months winds down for Sunday’s vote, it is becoming difficult to spot the difference between the leaders of the two parties most likely to win. Oh what a difference a month can make. Antonis Samaras, leader of the center-right New Democracy (Νέα Δημοκρατία), has been moving toward [...]

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Golden Dawn incident highlights possibility of neo-fascist decline in Greek election re-run

Posted on June 7, 2012 by Kevin Lees

There aren’t many silver linings in being forced to hold two legislative elections in as many months, while your country is running out of money, mired in near-depression economic conditions and suffering from budget cuts that have torn apart the country’s social contract. But perhaps one of the best things that can come of the [...]

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Tsipras outlines SYRIZA program, as Samaras shifts tone toward bailout renegotiation

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Kevin Lees

Alexis Tsipras laid out his party’s program for the upcoming June 17 Greek election on Friday. Tsipras said a SYRIZA government would immediately reject the memorandum on coming to power and ask for Greece’s debt to be restructured or for a moratorium on repayments. It would then repeal a reduction to the minimum wage and [...]

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ND regains polling momentum against SYRIZA in upcoming Greek election

Posted on May 22, 2012 by Kevin Lees

As predicted, the upcoming (second) Greek election is increasingly looking like a showdown between the two key figures of the pro-bailout and anti-austerity camps – between Antonis Samaras, the leader of the center-right New Democracy (Νέα Δημοκρατία) and Alexis Tsipras, the leader of the leftist SYRIZA (the Coalition of the Radical Left — Συνασπισμός Ριζοσπαστικής Αριστεράς). Polls show that [...]

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Tsipras: Austerity will send us ‘directly to the hell’

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Kevin Lees

It was somewhat of a coup for Christiane Amanpour to get an interview in English with SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras. With new elections scheduled in Greece for June 17 and with the radical left SYRIZA leading and/or tied with the center-right New Democracy for first place, Tsipras has become the face of Greece’s anti-austerity front. [...]

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Worries about Greece’s immediate eurozone exit are extremely overblown

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Kevin Lees

Earlier this week, as the chances of a pro-bailout Greek coalition fell apart, you would think that the failure to cobble together a coalition was tantamount to Greece withdrawing from the euro and reintroducing the drachma. Sure enough, signs of a “bank jog” emerged this week, as Greeks pulled out over €1.2 billion in deposits [...]

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