SYRIZA leader braces for market turmoil after vote

By Marco Bertacche & Eleni Chrepa

Greek anti-austerity SYRIZA party leader Alexis Tsipras isn?t ?frightened? by possible market turmoil in case of victory at the January 25 general election.

?We know markets certainly won?t be rooting for us and there?s a chance that initially they will show some aggressiveness toward a left government,? he said, according to excerpts of ?Alexis Tsipras, My Left,? a book scheduled to be published in Italy next week. ?The more you need money, the higher is the interest markets require.?

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras was forced to ask for snap elections on December 29 after failing to get enough lawmakers to support his candidate for the country?s ceremonial presidency. Greek 10-year government bond yields climbed back above 10 percent this week as SYRIZA?s lead in polls was confirmed less than three weeks before the ballot.

The yield on 10-year government bonds fell 13 basis points to 9.99 percent at 12.05 p.m. in Athens. Greece?s benchmark stock index (ASE), the Athens Stock Exchange Index, rose 2.1 percent, paring this week?s decline so far to 7 percent.

Samaras has warned the election will determine Greece?s euro membership and raised the specter of default in case of a victory by Tsipras, who advocates higher wages and a writeoff of some Greek debt.

?Additionally, as to markets perception, the issue of debt negotiation is fundamentally important,? Tsipras told Teodoro Andreadis Synghellakis in the question-and-answer style book. SYRIZA vows to write down most of the nominal value of Greece?s debt once elected. ?That?s what was done for Germany in 1953, it should be done for Greece in 2015,? Tsipras said in a speech in Athens January 3.

Balanced budget

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