The Other Europe with Tsipras ?

How will the parliament election and new government in Greece affect EU policy ? Concerning debt and austerity the first statements from EU and Syriza suggests willingness to negotiate, and that is of course no surprise. But beyond a willingness to discuss payment conditions, is the EU open for some creative thinking about debt relief ? It is very hard to say how the negotiation process will proceed, because the member states have different views reflecting their own economic situation. Even if the statements from the most relevant Commissioners have been very cautious so far, the French European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Moscovici, sounded perhaps a bit more openminded than Commission President Juncker and others. But the Unions economic recovery policy is so far not very successful, and there might be or occur opportunities for changes. Perhaps Syriza, a coalition of left wing parties in government with a right wing party, has some extraordinary possibilities to form broad alliances across the traditional party constellations ? A symbol of this possible broad backing is an Italian party named L´Altra Europa con Tsipras (The Other Europe with Tsipras), which has 3 MEPs belonging to the same group in the European Parliament as Syrizas 6 MEPs (GUE/NGL) .

There are obiously other policy areas where the new Greek goverment might influence EU politics. For a  Union struggling to develop a more common foreign policy, Syrizas pro Russia attitudes will undoubtedly create challenges. Syrizas pro Palestinian policy will perhaps be more welcome.

It will be interesting to follow the new Greek government.