Backing up, yesterday, we talked about the political uncertainty in Greece in the 24 hours since the watershed national elections that have rocked not just Greece, but the entire Eurozone. It now appears even more likely that Greece will remain without a government until new elections can be held in about a month. The party that received the most votes, New Democracy, wasn't able to form a coalition. It's leader passed the baton to the party with the second most votes, Syriza, headed by the young and charismatic Alexis Tsipras.
Tsipras has a herculean task ahead of him, because the political landscape has become so fragmented that forming a coalition would be an accomplishment of massive proportions, in and of itself. He has proposed five points that are the focus of his discussion with party leaders, one of which includes the immediate abolition of a law granting members of Greek parliament immunity from prosecution. This has been a long standing privilege for politicians in Greece.
Needless to say these are extraordinary times for Greece, and a true test of democracy in the country that made it a household name more than 2500 years ago. If the country is sent back to the voting boxes in a month, there is no reason to believe that the result will be any more homogenous. In fact, chances are that the electorate could grow more impatient, and more radicalized. Eurocrats in Brussels have already proven inept at managing the political, social and economic fallout in the peripheral countries that have been impacted most by this debt crisis. If these latest election results prove to be the straw that breaks the camel's back in Greece, they could portend similar results for other nations that find themselves in the same boat. Uncertainty abounds like never before.
However, austerity is what gets a lot of the buzz these days. We speak about all of this with Jim Rogers, Investor and Author.
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