Decisive hours in the Athens Parliament, where the third and final vote to elect the new President of the Greek Republic will take place today. After the flop of the first two attempts, if once again the candidate of the Samaras government, the former EU commissioner Stavros Dimas, does not reach the 180 necessary votes, early elections will automatically start, as foreseen by the Constitution of the Hellenic country. For the moment, Dimas lacks 12 votes, which must be collected outside the governing coalition Nea Democratia-Pasok.
In the event of a return to the polls, Syriza, an alternative left-wing party led by Alexis Tsipras, would have the upper hand. Syriza has already announced its intention to re-discuss the agreements reached with the Troika, to renegotiate the conditions imposed in exchange for the international loans guaranteed in Athens. The goal, Tsipras has clarified several times, is to abandon austerity at the roots of the current social and humanitarian crisis: the country's permanence in the Eurozone, on the other hand, is not in question.
In any case, the path of a one-party government will probably be impracticable, given that Syriza could still need a handful of external votes to obtain a majority in Parliament.
According to some analysts, however, the consequences of a Syriza victory for the balance of the Eurozone could be significant: the request to review the terms of EU loans, for example, could complicate the road towards quantitative easing by the European Central Bank.
Hence the pressure on the euro, traded this morning at 1,2173 dollars, the lowest since August 2012. The bond markets, in any case, are approaching hour X with great optimism, now assuming it is very probable, if not taken for granted , the launch of the European QE next January 22nd.
