Greece goes to the polls again

Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras is still likely to lead the next government, with one poll giving him an approval rating of 61%.

Andrew Van Sickle
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published
in News

The Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, has resigned, triggering an election for 20 September. With Syriza hardliners in revolt since Tsipras agreed an €86bn bailout deal in July, his administration has been relying on opposition votes in parliament. The hardliners have formed a new party Popular Unity to contest the election, but Tsipras is still likely to lead the next government, with one poll giving him an approval rating of 61%.

What the commentators said

Yet with the election coming only a month before the first bailout review in October, and a caretaker government until then, there will be little time to pass major reforms, said Jennifer McKeown of Capital Economics. If Greece slips further into recession, the enthusiasm of the remaining Syriza MPs for further austerity could be sorely tested. The bailout deal could still unravel quickly. Syriza cannot be relied on to reform Greece as boldly as required, agreed The Wall Street Journal.

"Even the supposed moderates retain a deep suspicion of private enterprise." The bailout deal itself is flawed, with tax rises and spending cuts that won't address Greece's fundamental growth problem. Greece requires bolder privatisation and deregulation than foreseen in the bailout if the economy is to return to robust growth. "Athens needs a government that can adopt, and then exceed, the supply-side reforms included in the bailout deal." Syriza is not that party.

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Andrew Van Sickle
Andrew Van Sickle
Editor, MoneyWeek

Andrew is the editor of MoneyWeek magazine. He grew up in Vienna and studied at the University of St Andrews, where he gained a first-class MA in geography & international relations.

After graduating he began to contribute to the foreign page of The Week and soon afterwards joined MoneyWeek at its inception in October 2000. He helped Merryn Somerset Webb establish it as Britain’s best-selling financial magazine, contributing to every section of the publication and specialising in macroeconomics and stockmarkets, before going part-time.

His freelance projects have included a 2009 relaunch of The Pharma Letter, where he covered corporate news and political developments in the German pharmaceuticals market for two years, and a multiyear stint as deputy editor of the Barclays account at Redwood, a marketing agency.

Andrew has been editing MoneyWeek since 2018, and continues to specialise in investment and news in German-speaking countries owing to his fluent command of the language.

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