Crisis returns to Greece as PM gambles on bailout endgame

Greece and the Eurozone are set for a hair-raising Christmas after a massive gamble by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras that could usher into power a party that says it would rather default than repay hundreds of billions of euros in bailout loans.

Samaras’ decision came after Greece’s Eurozone creditors agreed to keep bankrolling it for another two months after the end of this year, when its €240 billion ($297 billion) emergency support program was due to end.

It brings to a head political risks that have been simmering for the last couple of years since Greece’s second bail-out, which despite forcing massive losses on private bondholders failed to cut the country’s debts to a manageable level.

Samaras’ coalition of the center-right New Democracy party and PASOK, which until the crisis had dominated the center-left space in Greece’s political spectrum for decades, is under enormous pressure from the more radical left-wing party Syriza, led by Alexis Tsipras. Syriza came first in this year’s European elections in May as Tsipras led a campaign against the grinding austerity that has contributed to shrinking Greece’s economy by a quarter since 2010.

https://fortune.com/2014/12/09/crisis-returns-to-greece-as-pm-gambles-on-bailout-endgame/