Leftist Leader in Greece Rules Out Coalition With Incumbents [View all]

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Source: NYT

ATHENS — Greece’s post-election political and economic chaos deepened Tuesday, when the leader of a leftist anti-austerity party that gained in the balloting ruled out a coalition with the two formerly dominant parties that had backed hugely unpopular budget cuts.

The announcement raised further doubts about the country’s future in the euro zone, as well as fears about the stability of the common currency itself.

In a meeting with President Karolos Papoulias, the leader of the upstart party, Alexis Tsipras, ridiculed his counterparts of the two other parties, Antonis Samaras of the center-right New Democracy Party and Evangelos Venizelos of the Socialists, whose coalition lost its governing majority in the Sunday parliamentary election.

None of the Greek parties won enough votes Sunday to form a majority. But Mr. Tsipras, whose Coalition of the Radical Left, or Syriza, won the second-largest percentage of votes after New Democracy, is entitled under election laws to try to form a coalition because Mr. Samaras said on Monday that he could not. Mr. Tsipras has three days to try.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/world/europe/radical-left-leader-in-greece-rules-out-coalition-with-losing-incumbents.html