Greeks favour radical left as vote looms

The Communist-rooted Syriza party is poised to defeat the Greek conservative government in an election nervously watched by the nation's eurozone partners.

Greeks favour radical left as vote looms

epa04578855 Alexis Tsipras leader of main opposition radical left party SYRIZA addresses to journalists during a pre election interview of the party in Zappeion Mansion in Athens on 23 January 2015. Greece will hold parliamentary elections on Sunday 25 January 2015. EPA/ORESTIS PANAGIOTOU

The winds of political change are coursing through austerity-weary Greece.

Opinion polls ahead of Sunday's national election say the radical left opposition Syriza party, which has vowed to rewrite the terms of Greece's bailout, is poised to defeat Prime Minister Antonis Samaras's conservatives.

It may need the backing of a smaller party, but most seem willing to oblige.

Communist-rooted Syriza has alarmed markets and investors with its talk of massive debt forgiveness and riding roughshod over the bailout deals.

But the mood is less fraught than in the last national election in 2012, when many saw a Syriza victory as a precursor to its possible exit from the eurozone.

Greece's European partners are now less exposed to fallout from a Greek financial collapse.

The eurozone has a bailout fund and the European Central Bank has committed to buy the bonds of troubled countries, if needed.

And despite erratic bombshells from some Syrizan officials - one candidate suggested printing euros if push comes to shove - the party is straining to play up its mainstream, Eurocentric aspects.

Still, Greece's next government must consolidate reforms, keep running balanced budgets, strengthen weak growth after a six-year recession, conclude frozen talks with bailout inspectors to secure a 7.2 billion euro ($8.1 billion) loan tranche and negotiate further relief for its 320 billion euro debt.

If things go wrong, Greece could again face default and find its eurozone membership untenable.

Samaras, whose New Democracy party governed since May 2012 in a coalition with its Socialist former archrivals, has promised some tax relief, saying economic growth and investment will gradually reduce unemployment.

Syriza 40-year-old leader Alexis Tsipras, a former Communist youth member, favours writing off most of Greece's debt, a burden he describes as "not just unbearable, it objectively cannot be repaid".

Tsipras voiced confidence on Friday that he could strike a "viable, mutually acceptable and beneficial" deal with creditors by the end of June, after which Greece will need to pay maturing bonds worth more than 10 billion euros held by the ECB.

Syriza wants to ditch primary surplus targets, while still pursuing a balance between non-debt-related spending and revenues.

It proposes to restore the minimum monthly salary from 586 to 751 euros, provide free power and food coupons to 300,000 households, raise the tax-free income threshold from 5000 to 12,000 euros, reverse public sector firings and liberalise labour laws.

Greece's electoral system gives a 50-seat boost to the first party, making it effectively impossible for the runner-up to form a coalition if the winner fails.

Polls published on the last day of campaigning showed Syriza increasing its lead, with five surveys giving Tsipras an advantage of between 5.2 and 6.7 percentage points - a gain of about 2 points in a week.

Greeks have suffered five years of high unemployment, during which the economy shrank by a quarter and average incomes by a third.

Health care services have deteriorated and pensions have been slashed.

Meanwhile, the average tax burden has multiplied.

The final straw was last year's decision to make permanent a hated new property tax.

Since 2009, however, real estate prices - but not taxable values - have dropped 40 per cent and rents have shrunk.

What remains doubtful is whether Syriza will secure the minimum 151 seats in Greece's 300-member parliament that it needs to govern alone.

Tsipras said on Friday he was "one step" away from an absolute majority, which would spare him an alliance with "the forces of yesterday, which have every reason to want to trip Syriza up after the election".

But he indicated that he would compromise to avoid a second election a month later.


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