Rolling reaction as Alexis Tsipras secures agreement with the rightwing Independent Greeks to form Greece’s new governmentLatest: Syriza to form coalition with Independent GreeksGreece gets anti-austerity left-right government Experts see bumpy times aheadTsipras to visit the Palace at 3.30pm local timePhoto: Moment deal was agreedGreek elections: The ResultsShare your perspectives via GuardianWitness 10.38am GMT Greek media are reporting that Yanis Varaufakis has been given the brief of finance minister. Varaufakis insisted this morning that Grexit was not ‘on the cards’. The official announcement comes laterAcc 2 local media, @ydragasakis may be appointed Deputy PM supervising Fin & Dev Ministries, @yanisvaroufakis FinMin. #Greece #ekloges2015.@yanisvaroufakis as FinMin almost feels like as big of a story as Tsipras as PM. 10.34am GMT The German government has already declared that Greece will not get debt relief.Reuters reports:A senior lawmaker from Angela Merkel’s conservatives said on Monday “with us there will be no further debt reduction for Greece,” in reaction to a pledge by Greek election victor Alexis Tsipras to renegotiate Greece’s debt agreements.Norbert Barthle, spokesman on budgetary affairs for the conservatives in the lower house of parliament, told Reuters by telephone that Tsipras, whose leftist Syriza party swept to victory in a snap election on Sunday, must realise that German taxpayers are liable for a large portion of Greek aid. 10.30am GMT Open Europe’s analyst Vincenzo Scarpetta warns that the Syriza-Independent Greeks coalition “could prove problematic””“Not only will it drive a harder line in the debt negotiations, making a compromise even more difficult. But it could also undermine political stability in Greece in the medium term. While the two parties agree on rejecting EU-mandated austerity, they disagree on a number of other issues.” 10.23am GMT A smattering of instant reaction to the coalition deal:Key question has been: will Syriza moderate policies post-election? Coalition with the Independent Greeks suggests the answer is 'no'.#Syriza & its creditors are stuck in a Gordian Knot, both sides will need to cave on smthing. @economistmeg on @AP http://t.co/T4dFcqM9U5Syriza’s choice of coalition partner will worry Brussels. Sig reduces chances Greece will compromise on bailout. Coming months will be bumpySyriza coalition with right wing Indy Greeks- they can't change EU migration law, but probably give them something on church / military? 10.20am GMT Alexis Tsipras (on the right) was understandably cheerful when he met with Panos Kammenos, chairman of the right-wing Independent Greeks party, today to hammer out a coalition. 10.12am GMT Some details of the new government are leaking out:#Greece | Syriza MP Dragasakis [@ydragasakis] to become Deputy PM overlooking Finance & Economy Ministries, to lead negotiations w Eurozone. 10.10am GMT So, rightwing Independent Greeks to join leftist Syriza in anti-austerity govt. Uneasy bedfellows one would think. Cabinet composition tbc. 10.09am GMT Alexis Tsipras is expected to meet with other party leaders today to discuss the way ahead; Channel 4’s Paul Mason reckons he will be looking to make agreements on various issues. tsipras also expected to meet with theodorakis (potami) and koutsoubas (kke), presumably after he receives mandate to form government.Syriza-ANEL coalition - Tsipras is constructing issue by issue coalitions. Most of what he needs to do does not happen in parliament. 10.05am GMT Helena Smith confirms that Greece’s new prime minister Alexis Tsipras will meet president Karolos Papoulias at 3.30pm:The head of state is expected to hand the radical left leader a mandate to form a government.Insiders saying in ideal world a new government will be formed by the time the euro group of euro area finance ministers meets in Brussels this evening. Express elections, express government! 10.04am GMT Greece’s government could be wrapped up by dusk; Alexis Tsipras is due at the presidential palace at 3.30pm local time, or 1.30pm GMT.Tsipras to meet Greek president Karolos Papoulias at 3.30pm, will submit the names of his cabinet. Things moving fast here. 10.02am GMT Alexis Papachelas, one of Greece’s leading commentators has warned that “huge political instability lies ahead” following Sunday’s election. 10.01am GMT The New Statesman’s George Eaton sums up the new Greek government for UK readers:Syriza has just formed a coalition with the Greek equivalent of UKIP (The Independent Greeks or ANEL). 10.01am GMT This is an unusual coalition.Alexis Tsipras’s army of left-wing radicals will be sharing the government benches with a group of populists right-wing MPs who broke away from New Democracy in 2012. 9.56am GMT Traders on the Athens stock market have hailed the quick creation of a coalition. The ATX index has reversed this morning’s 5% slump, and is now flat.Bank shares are recovering too; Piraeus is only down 6.6%, having shed 16% earlier. 9.51am GMT Parliamentary mathematics time: the new government will have a working majority of 162 seats in the 300-seat parliament (Syriza’s 149 MPs plus the Independent Greeks with 13). BREAKING: Coalition announced, as expected, between SYRIZA and ANEL (Independents with 13 MPs, giving a majority of 162). 9.48am GMT The coalition deal means that Tsipras can now be summoned to the Greek presidential palace to be given a mandate to form a government.We’ll then get details of his cabinet ministers.kammenos: the cabinet will be announced by the prime minister. we executed the mandate of the greek people. 9.45am GMT So, Tsipras has managed his first task - agreeing a coalition between his radical left-wing Syriza and the populist right-wing Independent Greeks. The hard work starts here, though, as veteran conservative MP and former health minister Antonis Georgiadis explains.“The [economic] evaluation has to be concluded as soon as possible. It’s not a matter of months or weeks but days! I very much hope that Alexis and Panos [the government’s two new leaders] can save Greece.” 9.35am GMT It’s official: Greece has a government - a coalition between Syriza and the Independent Greeks.Less than an hour after talks began, Panos Kommenos, leader of the Independent Greeks party has emerged from Syriza’s party HQ saying the country has a new government. “I want to say, simply, that from this moment, there is a government.” “The Independent Greeks [party] will give a vote of confidence to the prime minister Alexis Tsipras.“The prime minister will go to the president and … the cabinet make-up will be announced by the prime minister. The aim for all Greeks is to embark on a new day, with full sovereignty.”#GreekElections we have a new government announces on greek TV Kamenos leader of independent greeks ... pic.twitter.com/CcG0ncXDqg 9.33am GMT Alexis Tsipras must achieve “deep structural and institutional change” in Greece before trying to get a debt deal out of Brussels.So argues Greek journalist Nick Malkoutzis this morning. He reckons that Syriza’s top priority should be to reform the justice system, the civil service, the tax-collection operations, to show eurozone allies he is serious.If SYRIZA really wants to seize the opportunity it has been given then the best service it can offer to Greece is to deal with the deep-rooted malaise in the public administration and political system. This will offer Greece a sounder platform for the future than a reduction in the public debt or a faster rate of growth. In fact, securing the last two without the first will only lead to Greece ending up in the same place it is now sooner or later. 9.32am GMT 9.23am GMT There’s a mixed reaction in German newspapers to radical leftist Alexis Tsipras’s triumph.Front page digital edition of Germany's tabloid @BILD: "Euro schock as Tsipiras triumphs!" #ekloges2015 pic.twitter.com/BabAHYwzFS“Sorry, Mr Tsipras, but that’s going too far! The Eurozone is no gambling den in which every gambler can do what he wants. And where once closed agreements can be questioned at one’s own pleasure. What applies here is: An agreement is an agreement!”“The victory of Syriza is a chance for Greece to free itself from the decades of corruption and nepotism, with which both the conservative New Democracy and the social democratic Pasok were inextricably bound,” 9.16am GMT Are you one of Greece’s 9.8 million voters? After the historic win by Syriza, we’d like to hear your hopes and fears for the future of the country.Visit GuardianWitness to take part. 9.12am GMT Dimitris Vitsas, a member of Syriza’s central committee has just told SKAI TV that “our immediate and most pressing priority is to alleviate the humanitarian crisis.” “The Greek people have cancelled the policies of the memorandum,” he said referring to the deeply unpopular bailout accords outlining the onerous conditions of EU-IMF aid to debt-stricken Greece.“We don’t want a rupture [in relations] with Europe … disagreement is one thing, rupture quite another.”Despite all the forecasts of economic catastrophe with the advent to power of a left-wing government “we have woken up to a sunny day.”. “The banks haven’t closed, they are operating normally, schools are open. Everything is just as it should be.” 9.02am GMT Greek bonds have also fallen in value this morning.That has pushed up the yield, or interest rate, on Greece’s 10-year bonds trading in the markets to 8.96% this morning, up from 8.74% on Friday.Investors flee Greek bonds after Syriza win. #Greece's 10yr yields jump by 22bps to 8.96%. pic.twitter.com/K0uypwhLxw 8.59am GMT Greek bank shares have slumped in volatile early trading in Athens.The ATG stock index has tumbled by over 5%, as investors raced to offload stocks following Syriza’s success. 8.51am GMT Syriza’s victory in the Greek election will “increase economic uncertainty across Europe”, prime minister David Cameron has warned (writes political editor Patrick Wintour) .“I certainly understand that if you have unemployment at 25%, if your economy has shrunk by 20%, as the Greek economy has over recent years, you are looking for other answers, alternatives – because ultimately this is just the latest chapter in the eurozone crisis. It increases economic uncertainty and it reminds the United Kingdom that it needs to work through an economic plan that is delivering lower unemployment, and growth and economic security.”“People get tired of economic failure. They get tired of rising unemployment. And in the UK, returning to economic chaos, returning to the lack of an economic plan would see higher unemployment. So i think the lesson for us is: continue to work through the plan that is working, that is delivering that higher job rate …“What people don’t like is economic policies that don’t work; in the UK, we have an economic policy that is working.“People here – and indeed this is true across the country – are seeing greater economic security, jobs being created, more personal prosperity as earnings rise faster than prices. So I think what you see is not a defeat of austerity; it’s a defeat of economic plans that don’t work. And in Britain we’ve got an economic plan that is working.”“I don’t think it’s just a question about the public finances. I think that is a panacea, It is a false hope that it’s just a question of spending more money in these countries. One of the reasons these countries are in a mess is because they weren’t able to bring their public finances under control in the past”. 8.39am GMT The coalition talks between Alexis Tsipras and the Independent Greek party have begun, slightly earlier than expected.From Athens, Helena Smith reports: Such it seems is the enthusiasm for a new change of course that Panos Kammenos, head of the small, populist right-wing Independent Greeks party has turned up EARLY for talks at Syriza’s HQ with Alexis Tsipras.Greek media reporting it is almost “100 percent certain” that a coalition government will be formed. Skai TV says radical left leader Alexis Tsipras may even announce its make-up later in the day. Neither Tsipras nor Kammenos have much in common - bar the desire to see punishing austerity ended. 8.36am GMT Greece’s debt pile is simply too high for the country to return to growth and services its borrowing, says Professor Christopher Pissarides.Pissarides, of the London School of Economics, explains:“You can’t really have growth coming out of such a deep recession by running the kind of budget surpluses that are needed [to repay debts] at the same time”. 8.33am GMT The CEO of Greek Bank Piraeus then told the Today Programme that savers are less nervous than in 2012.“There is definitely not a bank run. Definitely not the panic we saw a few years ago” 8.30am GMT What are the chances of Greece still being in the eurozone in one year, or five years? We who are in the eurozone must not toy with loose or fast talk about Grexit or fragmentation. If that happens, disruptive forces would be unleashed. 8.25am GMT Syriza MP Yanis Varoufakis says his party will show Europe a plan that cuts the cost of this debt debacle to the average German, the average Slovak, who is even poorer than the average Greek.What details can you give us? 8.21am GMT Yanis Varoufakis, a Syriza MP who is tipped to become Greece’s next finance minister, is being interviewed on the BBC’s Today Programme now.Congratulated on Syriza’s success, Varoufakis replies soberly that:It’s a poisoned chalice, but I accept your congratulations.Fiscal waterboarding has turned us into a debt colony. 8.09am GMT The London stock market has fallen at the start of trading, but it’s a muted reaction.The FTSE 100 is down just 28 points, or 0.4%, at 6804. 8.07am GMT Events are moving fast in Greece. Alexis Tsipras is due to meet with the leader of the right-wing Independent Greeks, Panos Kammenos, at 10.30 a.m local time (or 8.30am GMT).Tsipras should also receive a mandate from president Karolos Papoulias to form a government today. Including the Independent Greeks in the coalition suggests we can expect dangerous brinkmanship in the Greek govt's negotiation w the troika 8.00am GMT Britain’s chancellor has denied that austerity has been defeated in the voting booths of Athens.Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne told BBC Radio that: “People get tired of economic failure, they tired of rising unemployment ... what you see is not a defeat of austerity, it is a defeat of economic plans that don’t work and in Britain we have got an economic plan that is working,” “I hope that both sides now act responsibly....It is certainly in the United Kingdom’s interests that we have stability, that we have a proper dialogue here between members of the euro.”The Greek election will increase economic uncertainty across Europe. That's why the UK must stick to our plan, delivering security at home. 7.54am GMT Priti Patel, Conservative MP in Westminster, just told Sky News that Greece’s economic problems are “a stark reminder that we should never join the euro”. 7.51am GMT Syriza’s victory should energise the battle against austerity across Europe, argues the Green Party.MEPs Keith Taylor and Molly Scott Cato just issued a statement, saying:Greens share the view of the new government that austerity is a failed model which has piled misery on the poorest while making the wealthiest even richer. This result shows that challenging business as usual politics can win the support of the people. In the UK we are witnessing a Green Surge, in no small part due to our anti-austerity agenda, and we hope the Greek election result marks the beginnings of ordinary people standing up to a discredited economic model and failing Governments across Europe.” 7.47am GMT News of Syriza’s victory has pushed the euro to an 11-year low. The single currency hit $1.1098, for the first time since September 2003, as investors anticipate clashes between Alexis Tsipras and the EU. 7.41am GMT (via the eKathimerini newspaper) 7.37am GMT Good morning. The people of Greece have spoken, demanding an end to the austerity that has gripped the country since the debt crisis began. The verdict of the Greek people ends, beyond any doubt, the vicious circle of austerity in our country,”. “The verdict of the Greek people, your verdict, annuls today in an indisputable fashion the bailout agreements of austerity and disaster. The verdict of the Greek people renders the troika a thing of the past for our common European framework.” Continue reading...
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