Influence of the economic crisis on the functioning of the political system of Greece

Abstract

“The crisis is not solely Greek. The crisis is European.”2 With these words, the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras addressed the parliament in his first speech after winning the elections on 25 January 2015. This was a powerful declaration, as for the first time since the fall of the Regime of the Colonels in 1974, power in Greece was taken over by the Syriza, a radical left-wing group that formed a coalition with the nationalist Independent Greeks party. In the face of a deep economic crisis, several years of recession and the de facto bankruptcy of the state, both the political powers stood against austerity and financial cuts, which the cabinets of the socialist PASOK party and the conservative New Democracy party had subscribed to." (fragm.)