Greece and Germany are eyeball to eyeball on bailout crisis; Libya chaos threatens to reopen bitter rift between Qatar and Egypt; Ethnic Chinese Kokang burst into violence in northern Burma (Myanmar)
The new socialist government of Greece is not having much success convincing its European creditors to forget about billions of dollars in debt, and then loan Greece even more money. Bloomberg News reports Commerzbank AG is doubling the odds of a Greek exit from the Eurozone to 50 percent, which sounds like a polite underestimation of the odds, given the sudden and acrimonious end of the latest debt talks.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whose socialist administration has been a staunch supporter of the radical leftist anti-austerity parties rising to prominence in Greece and Spain, claimed on a national broadcast last week that Greek PM ‘Comrade Alexis’ Tsipras has agreed to visit Venezuela and several other socialist Latin American nations.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference on Wednesday that Russia would consider financial aid to Greece should the circumstances allow, with the caveat that Russia’s economy is not in the greatest state it could be to help bail out anyone else. Lavrov’s comments echo those of the nation’s Finance Minister in January following the election of new Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
Over the weekend, former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan predicted that Greece will end up leaving the eurozone and that the euro will not long survive its departure.
30 dead in Cairo Egypt as soccer fans clash with police; Greece’s Alexis Tsipras approaches Wednesday confrontation with Europe
Russian President Vladimir Putin took another step to disturb ties between Russia and Europe when he invited new Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to Moscow on May 9.
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Spanish Budget Minister Cristobal Montoro has categorically rejected any attempts to “change the rules” regarding austerity measures imposed on Greece by European Union regulations. “Europe is a club of democracies, and entering is voluntary,” he stated, implying that, should Greece’s new government refuse to impose austerity measures, they can leave the EU.
European finance ministers worried that Greece’s new far-left government would renege on the terms of previous bailout packages, while demanding even more debt to finance wild new spending programs, were given fresh reason for concern when the new Greek finance minister announced his government would not negotiate bailout terms with the European Union or International Monetary Fund.
ISIS-linked terrorists kill dozens in Egypt’s northern Sinai; Russia looks to Greece as an ally against EU sanctions; Greece forces compromise in planned new EU sanctions against Russia
This week, Palestine’s Islamist Hamas movement congratulated the head of Greece’s newly-elected, far-left Syriza coalition on his party’s victory and hailed him for his staunch opposition to “Israeli crimes, aggression, and siege on Gaza.”
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In what has become the first major foreign policy move by the far-left newly elected government of Greece, new Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ office has denied that his country assented to a European Union statement released this week condemning Russia’s further meddling in Ukraine.
The European left is in party mode. After the decisive victory of Greece’s Coalition of the Radical Left (Syriza) in parliamentary elections last night, Greek leftists took to the streets and their analogs in Spain and the UK warned that their nations would be next. But while the hard left has much to celebrate, “moderate” socialists on the continent should take the news with a grain of salt, as the leftist party that ruled Greece as recently as 2011 appears to have lost almost all support.
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Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has reportedly said that she’s prepared to support Greece leaving the eurozone, and returning its original drachma currency, if Greece abandons the austerity commitments it made in return for the 240 billion euro bailout that has already been paid.
