Neo-Nazi party in Greece could enter Parliament

[Zaune]

OTOH, as for the architecture of both Nazis and the Soviets, I never cared much for either of them. Though arguably they were less dull than the glass boxes of late 20th century America and Western Europe.

I'll take dull glass boxes over the kind of architecture that only a man with a very small penis could design, thanks.

[CaptHawkeye]

I don't know if Albert Speer had a small penis, he seemed to be more interested in just pushing the science of architecture. He claimed that he fixed a lot of the problems with buildings like the Volkshalle while he was in prison.

Hitler and Mussolini definitely had a building agenda based around compensation though.

[Sea Skimmer]

I don't know if Albert Speer had a small penis, he seemed to be more interested in just pushing the science of architecture. He claimed that he fixed a lot of the problems with buildings like the Volkshalle while he was in prison.

Hitler and Mussolini definitely had a building agenda based around compensation though.

People just interested in nothing but architecture don’t get involved in meetings plotting the progress of the Holocaust. He should have hanged at Nuremberg but weaseled out of it. One of many reasons why the Soviet solution of just executing all the top Nazis would have made more sense than convicting at random.

[Lord Zentei]

OTOH, as for the architecture of both Nazis and the Soviets, I never cared much for either of them. Though arguably they were less dull than the glass boxes of late 20th century America and Western Europe.

I'll take dull glass boxes over the kind of architecture that only a man with a very small penis could design, thanks.

Lol?

Regardless, I'll pass on both of them.

[Narkis]

On topic: not being an expert on Greek politics, but it seems to me that Greece is in for a political stalemate until further elections, as I can't see the Coalition of the Radical Left working with either of the other two main parties. And will anything change even then?

You're right. SYRIZA (the Coalition of the Radical Left) failed today to get a coalition government going, not that many expected them to succeed. Tomorrow it'll be the turn of PASOK, but there's no way they'll succeed either. Then according to the constitution our President will host a meeting of all party leaders to try to broker a universal government between them, but this is destined to fail too. So we're heading for another round of elections, either at June 10 or 17.

But there's a very real possibility that SYRIZA will win the next elections. The difference between them and ND was about 1%. And SYRIZA has already began preparing for the next elections, holding talks with the Green party (who got 2.9%) and ANTARSYA, another radical left party that got about 1.5%, so that they'll enter the ballots jointly. And if that's not enough, abstention last week was at 35%. Many, perhaps most, of those who didn't vote were young people, college students and the like, who had lost hope that anything would ever change through the elections. Polls have consistently shown that SYRIZA is supported by more than 40% of the young. And I'm willing to bet that a lot of them will not abstain next month, not when a truly left government seems possible, for the first time since forever. And anecdotal evidence supports this too, as pretty much every single one of my friends and acquaintances who didn't bother to vote last week, and there were quite a few of them, have said that this time they'll head back to their hometowns just to vote for SYRIZA, and try to get their relatives to do the same.

And if SYRIZA wins, even by one vote, a "grand coalition of the left" government will be possible. SYRIZA alone will have about 110 seats, with the bonus. DIMAR (Democratic Left, a party that used to be part of SYRIZA until last February) has already stated that they support them, adding another 20 seats to the tally. So they need just one more party. KKE, the communist party, would've been the obvious choice, but they've stubbornly refused to cooperate with anyone, not even when SYRIZA proposed the communist leader as the next prime minister. If they still won't budge, things get more difficult, but still not impossible. There's the "Independent Greeks" party, a center right party comprised mostly of people who belonged to ND but got expelled when they disagreed with the party line over the second memorandum a few months ago. Their leader has been using rhetoric indistinguishable from that used by SYRIZA in things concerning Europe, the memorandum, and the current crisis. Even if they agree on nothing else, and they don't, they should be able to agree on a short term government that will manage the pressing issues for a year or two before holding elections and heading their separate ways. And there've been talks about PASOK, threatened with irrelevance, making a U-turn and either supporting a SYRIZA government without participating themselves, or abstaining from the vote of confidence for the same result. Either of these three cases would bring the coalition government above the magic number of 151 seats.

And then, things will get interesting.

[Lord Zentei]

Yup, they just pulled out of the talks.

Is there a possibility of a three-party coalition with New Democracy, Pasok and the Democratic Left?

Anyhow, BBC article on the issue:

The leader of far-left party Syriza will not attend coalition talks on Monday, reports say, plunging Greece into further political disarray.

The move by Alexis Tsipras takes the country a step closer to elections - which polls now suggest the anti-bailout party could win.

President Karolos Papoulias had invited four parties, including Syriza, to further talks.

But Mr Tsipras on Sunday ruled out any deal with pro-bailout parties.

Both the centre-right New Democracy and the socialist Pasok have so far been unable to form a new coalition.

They both agreed to swingeing cuts in return for the last EU/IMF bailout, but suffered at last week's polls.

Syriza, which came second, insists any new government must cancel austerity measures agreed in return for EU-IMF loans worth 130bn euros ($170bn; £105bn).
Fruitless

"Alexis Tsipras will not attend the meeting tomorrow," Reuters news agency quoted Syriza official Nikos Pappas as saying.

That leaves New Democracy and Pasok due to attend the talks at the presidential mansion along with Democratic Left, a more moderate leftist party.

In theory, Democratic Left - which came seventh in the election, winning 19 seats - could provide those two parties with the support needed to form a coalition, but its leader, Fotis Kouvelis, has repeatedly said he would not do so without Syriza.

It became clear that Mr Papoulias's consultations with party leaders on Sunday were likely to be fruitless when Mr Tsipras refused to join a proposed national unity coalition with New Democracy and Pasok, saying: "They're not seeking an accord with Syriza... they're asking us to be their partners in crime and we will not be their accomplices."

A row erupted after Mr Tsipras accused Democratic Left of agreeing to form a coalition with New Democracy and Pasok - an accusation that Democratic Left rejected as a "slander and a lie" on its website.

Emerging after the talks, Mr Kouvelis said the president had told him there was "no possibility of the formation of a unity government, and he referred to the refusal by Syriza to participate in such an government, or to even show tolerance towards one".

The leader of New Democracy, Antonis Samaras, said Syriza had refused to join or back a coalition government, even if it pledged to "renegotiate" the loan agreement.

The BBC's Mark Lowen in Athens says most Greeks appear to be in favour of remaining in the euro, but there are questions as to what sacrifices they are willing to make to achieve that goal.

European leaders say rejecting the terms of the bailout is incompatible with remaining in the euro - something polls suggest a large majority of Greeks want to do.
'Russian roulette'

If, as expected, the talks fail to produce a governing coalition, a new election will be scheduled for next month.

The uncertainty has alarmed Greece's international creditors, who insist the country must keep to the terms of the bailout deal if it is to continue receiving funds and avoid bankruptcy.

Correspondents say the anti-bailout vote that was shared among several small parties in the first election now seems to be consolidating around Syriza.

Several opinion polls have put Syriza in first place in any future poll. With a bonus of 50 extra parliamentary seats that winning would bring, an anti-bailout coalition led by Syriza is looking more likely.

[K. A. Pital]

SYRIZA and KKE should just push for a Greece default and eject it from the EU and EMU at last.