Portugal’s Green party has welcomed the victory of the Syrisa party in the Greek elections on Sunday, especially the success of Syrisa's "no to austerity" platform.
The Greens commented today that this is the "opportune time for Portugal to require the renegotiation of its debt."
"At the ballot box the Greek people clearly expressed their rejection of austerity policies which have pushed thousands of Greeks into unemployment and poverty, policies promoted by those parties that have governed Greece in recent years and by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund," read a Green party statement today.
According to Portuagl's Greens, the win by the Greek leftist coalition party "also showed the refusal of a people to surrender to fear and EU blackmail, expressed by the hard core of Germany - Angela Merkel in particular."
"'The Greens will follow closely the implications of the election results in Greece and are confident that this might be the first stone in building the hope of those EU people subject to the policies that promote austerity, destroy and subjugate social systems and the political will of the people," read the text that emphasised the opportunity for Portugal to renegotiate its own Troika debt.
In Greece, the party led by Alexis Tsipras won a clear victory, with 36.34% of the vote, electing 149 deputies. This was just two seats from the 151 needed for an absolute majority.
The ruling conservative New Democracy party won 27.81% of the vote giving it an embarassing 76 seats.
Portugal's government line has been to offer polite welcome to the new Greek prime minister and an insistence that Greece is Greece and Portugal is Portugal, that Portugal technically ended its Troika funding deal last March and that Greece is still in the middle of its bail out process and should aim to stay in the Union.
This may be impossible as Tsipras was elected on an anti-austerity ticket and now faces tough negotiations if he is to retain the credibility of the electorate as well as Greece's place at the EU table.
