Tsipras crushes his opponents, left and right, to gain second term
It was the unswayability of the left vote that put Alexis Tsipras straight back into the prime ministerial mansion he resigned from a month ago, calling a snap election.
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Justice Secretary Michael Gove accuses the Remain campaign of treating voters like children and trying to scare them into voting to stay in the EU in June’s referendum.
Labour has been forced to go on the defensive after the leak of a list which allegedly ranks MPs according to their support of Jeremy Corbyn.
Shoring up the party faithful, Tim Farron, new Lib Dem leader, promised that “20,000 new members had joined” since May. FactCheck’s been trying to find them.
It was the unswayability of the left vote that put Alexis Tsipras straight back into the prime ministerial mansion he resigned from a month ago, calling a snap election.
There is a genuine sense that some of those supporting Jeremy Corbyn are invigorated by the sense of a genuine alternative to the broad consensus among the major parties.
I am amazed to find that a previous regime here decided to enrol every single priest as a civil servant and pay them as such – together with their pensions.
The latest polls show collapse in popular support for Spain’s leftist Podemos party, as its Greek ally Syriza is forced to implement a harsh austerity package.
Juncker and Merkel saying early today they are confident Athens will do as it is told and as its own leader has negotiated, but the scale of the Greek PM’s U-turn remains breath-taking.
There is now the basis of a deal to keep Greece in the eurozone – but it involves the crushing of a government elected on a landslide and the flouting of a referendum.
It is every bit as much about trust as about economics now. Of course, this being Brussels and this being the EU, nobody would ever use a word as straightforward as “trust”.
Greece is told it needs to enact key reforms by Wednesday in order to restore trust with eurozone leaders, who will then open talks to negotiate a bailout deal with the struggling country.
If Angela Merkel has her way, the euphoria in Athens about Sunday’s referendum result will prove short lived. There is a discernible hardening of attitudes in Berlin.
The government will want to give clear advice to tourists heading for Greece (in a few weeks’ time that includes quite a few MPs, I understand, who have holidays booked there).
Why did Varoufakis go? The official reason, on his blog, was pressure from creditors. But there are a whole host of other reasons that made it easier for him to decide to yield to it.
The EU leadership told Greeks a No meant exit from the eurozone. The Greek government said they were bluffing. We’ll find out who’s right soon.