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Syriza Dissenters Form New Party in Greece In a Twist, Europe May Find Itself Relying on Success of Alexis Tsipras of Greece
(about 7 hours later)
ATHENS — Just hours after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of Greece called early elections, 25 members of his governing Syriza party announced a breakaway anti-austerity movement on Friday, while the main conservative opposition said it would try to avert elections by forming a government. ROME — Europe spent months trying to crush Alexis Tsipras. But now that Greece’s leftist prime minister has called a snap election and is seeking a mandate for the tough new bailout program he negotiated with his country’s creditors, Europe, oddly enough, may find itself invested in his success.
The initiatives were likely to thwart the efforts of Mr. Tsipras, whose resignation on Thursday was a calculated move to consolidate his grip on power and press ahead with overhauls required by Greece’s third bailout, to hold elections as quickly as possible. Greece never fails to surprise, and Mr. Tsipras’s turbulent eight-month tenure has proved he is rarely predictable. But the man many European leaders once regarded as a populist wrecking ball is now presenting himself as a figure who can deliver pragmatism and stability — and carry out the sort of austerity program he once inveighed angrily against.
The election, initially proposed for Sept. 20, could be moved to the end of that month or to early October if all of the country’s major political players exploit their right, under the Greek Constitution, to try to form a government. “I’m sure that he has talked to European leaders, and they are O.K. with what he is doing now,” said Harry Papasotiriou, a professor of international relations at Panteion University in Athens, adding that Mr. Tsipras was staking his political life on a bailout deal that includes the kind of taxes and pension cuts he once opposed. “He’s taking ownership of it.”
Twenty-five Syriza lawmakers announced the formation of a party, Popular Unity, in a letter to Parliament on Friday, declaring that they intended to “remain true to our pre-election promises.” They were referring to the general elections in January, which brought Syriza to power on a pledge that it would roll back years of austerity measures, a promise Mr. Tsipras went back on. The latest twist by Mr. Tsipras was met with cautious optimism on Friday by some European commentators even as his surprise move again tossed Greece into political turmoil. On Friday, a faction of hard-line leftists split from Mr. Tsipras’s Syriza party and formed a new party, vowing to resist austerity and possibly even lead Greece out of the eurozone.
Syriza was left on Friday with 124 lawmakers in the 300-seat Parliament, but local news reports speculated that four more legislators were preparing to abandon the party. At the same time, analysts cautioned that the new election, and the continuing political maneuverings in Athens, could further complicate and slow implementation of the 86 billion euro, or about $95 billion, bailout program signed by Mr. Tsipras in July. An initial progress review by creditors, scheduled for October, may be delayed, which would delay discussions between Greece and its lenders over possible restructuring of the country’s crippling sovereign debt.
Popular Unity will be led by a former energy minister, Panagiotis Lafazanis, the leader of Syriza’s radical Left Platform faction, with which about 40 of Syriza’s lawmakers were loosely aligned. Some economists also warned that the uncertainty surrounding the elections, including the possibility that the proposed Sept. 20 election could be pushed back, could revive the sort of public anxiety that earlier this year destabilized the broader economy and spurred a run on Greek banks.
In a televised news conference, Mr. Lafazanis said his new movement would offer “a realistic alternative” to austerity. He said the main goals would be to “cancel” Greece’s bailout agreements and to write down the country’s debt, which Mr. Tsipras had supported before the January elections that brought Syriza to power. “That element I find to be much more risky,” said Marcel Fratzscher, president of the German Institute of Economic Research in Berlin. “It creates much more uncertainty.”
Mr. Lafazanis, who has lobbied for a return to the drachma, was unfazed by the possibility that canceling the bailout deals would require Greece to abandon the euro. “Any exit would be orderly,” he said, adding that the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, “cannot determine our fate.” Across Europe, some commentators and European officials framed Mr. Tsipras’s election gambit as a positive step to improve the odds that the bailout deal will be given a public mandate. Annika Breidthardt, a European Commission spokeswoman, said the commission “respects the decision” by Mr. Tsipras to call the vote and “considers it important” that the bailout package has public support.
Popular Unity, now the third-largest party in Parliament, would use its mandate to try and form a government, Mr. Lafazanis said, by reaching out to all “progressive” forces that have not endorsed austerity. In a message on Twitter, Martin Selmayr, the chief of staff for Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, said “swift elections” could “broaden support” for the deal that Mr. Tsipras signed last month.
“The ‘no’ of the referendum will not be an orphan in these elections,” he said. “We will try to express the spirit and substance of the 62 percent who voted no to austerity.” Some commentators described the Greek vote as a potentially important step for broader political stability and unity in Europe. Writing in Corriere della Sera, a leading Italian newspaper, Aldo Cazzullo called on European leaders to push for greater political integration and praised Mr. Tsipras for tossing off his populist trappings and presenting himself as a leader able “to undertake a long road to renewal which, for all its difficulties, has shown itself to be the only path possible.”
The Constitution gives the three largest parties in Greece three days each to explore possible alliances after a government’s resignation. In Germany, where disgust with Mr. Tsipras is palpable, newspapers quoted government sources as saying that Chancellor Angela Merkel hoped the election could produce a government capable of bringing stability to Greece. Stefan Kornelius, a columnist for Süddeutsche Zeitung, a Munich newspaper, described Mr. Tsipras as “a realist and a pragmatist” who was now more aligned with Ms. Merkel’s agenda.
Mr. Tsipras passed, as expected, but Vangelis Meimarakis, the leader of his main political rival, the conservative New Democracy party, said he would use that right. Yet mistrust for Mr. Tsipras is deep among German officials, and some lawmakers were suspicious that the Greek leader might use a new election to revoke the bailout program he signed last month. “Mr. Tsipras must not be allowed to deviate from the path of reform with such a maneuver,” Manfred Weber, the head of the center-right European People’s Party, told the tabloid Bild.
“We are trying to find solutions,” Mr. Meimarakis said after speaking with President Prokopis Pavlopoulos. Few analysts predicted that the deep rifts between Mr. Tsipras and other European leaders would be suddenly be resolved, especially in Germany. But many agreed that Mr. Tsipras was not likely to go anywhere, given his continued popularity, despite his policy reversals. If European leaders want to see Greece truly put economic structural reforms into effect, Mr. Tsipras may now have the best chance of getting anything done, some analysts say.
Referring to an “unprecedented, extremely complex political landscape,” he indicated that he would explore all avenues, suggesting that he would accept the current deputy prime minister, Yannis Dragasakis, a Syriza moderate, as the leader of a “unity government.” “What Europe is interested in is political stability in Greece,” said Christian Odendahl, chief economist for the Center for European Reform in London. He said that while Europe was “not that invested” in a Tsipras election victory, dealing with him could be inevitable and his promise to carry out the bailout could be welcomed even by his erstwhile enemies.
Mr. Meimarakis met later on Friday with Zoe Konstantopoulou, the speaker of Parliament and another Syriza dissenter. In Athens, political analysts note that Mr. Tsipras, at the moment, has no political rival capable of challenging him and that his party, Syriza, is almost certain to finish first in the election, with the question being by what margin. Those who left Syriza on Friday morning to form the Popular Unity Party are 25 lawmakers led by a former energy minister, Panagiotis Lafazanis. But analysts are skeptical that their anti-euro message will resonate with voters.
Mr. Meimarakis’s initiative may be more of an effort to frustrate Mr. Tsipras than to actually form a government. With 76 legislators in Parliament, New Democracy would have to gain the support of virtually every party other than Syriza to form a government, including the Communists and the neofascist party Golden Dawn. Despite his policy reversals, Mr. Tsipras has retained his popularity by moving slowly to the political center after waging a defiant, unsuccessful fight to win Greece a better deal. Indeed, the surreal quality of recent Greek politics is hard to overstate.
In January, Mr. Tsipras took power as a fiery, anti-austerity populist vowing to change Europe. In early July, unable to make headway in debt talks, Mr. Tsipras unexpectedly called a national referendum asking whether voters would accept terms put forward by lenders. He defiantly implored citizens to vote ‘no,’ which they did in big numbers.
But European creditors did not budge, and only days later Mr. Tsipras reversed course and soon signed the country’s third bailout package despite previously vowing not to do so. He only managed to pass the program through Parliament with the help of opposition parties, as hard-liners in Syriza refused to support it, setting the stage for the split and the call for an election.
The head-spinning chronology has left many Greeks weary of political upheaval, if still seeming to trust Mr. Tsipras. In Athens, Maria Stasinopoulou, 22, an engineering student, endorsed the snap election, arguing that Mr. Tsipras had no other alternative. “It’s not the best thing for the country right now, but he has to deal with Syriza before he can govern,” she said, alluding to the party’s insurgents.
“Of course, I’m disappointed with Tsipras, but he did what could, and no one could have done more,” she added. “I think he deserves another chance. He’s the only realistic, noncorrupt politician in Greece right now.”
But Angelos Handris, 55, who manages a street kiosk near central Athens, bemoaned the election as “the last thing we need,” and sharply criticized Syriza. “They promised the world, they messed up, they closed the banks, and now they want to drag us to elections,” said Mr. Handris, a supporter of the conservative New Democracy Party.
Mr. Tsipras has submitted his resignation to Greece’s president, who will appoint an interim prime minister to oversee a caretaker government until the election. This means that for the third time in eight months, Greece will hold a national vote. Mr. Tsipras won the first two and is counting on a third.