ATHENS, Greece — The smoldering debate over European austerity flared hotter Tuesday as the left-wing politician trying to form a new Greek government declared that his country is no longer bound by its pledges to impose crippling cutbacks in return for rescue loans.
The comments by Alexis Tsipras flew in the face of EU leaders’ insistence on fiscal discipline and sent the Greek stock market tumbling just two days after Greek voters rejected mainstream pro-austerity politicians. Instead, the people backed a hodgepodge of parties from the Stalinist left to the neo-Nazi right but produced no clear winner in parliament.
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Tsipras also demanded an examination of Greece’s still-massive debt and a moratorium on repayment of the part of it that is “onerous,” statements that rattled investors and drove Greek shares down another 3.6 percent on top of Monday’s nearly 7-percent loss. Markets in France, Italy, Germany and the U.S. also fell.
“The pro-bailout parties no longer have a majority in parliament to vote in destructive measures for the Greek people,” said the 38-year-old Tsipras, whose anti-austerity Radical Left Coalition party came second in Sunday’s vote.
“The popular mandate clearly renders the bailout agreement invalid.”
Tsipras is the second Greek party leader in as many days to try to form a government. If no coalition can be found, elections will be held in a month, with the political instability boding ill for Greece’s hopes of staying solvent and within the 17-nation eurozone.
Moving to stomp out signs of increasing discontent in crisis-stricken countries, the European Union and Germany – the biggest contributor to the EU’s crisis fund – urged members Tuesday to stick to their agreed budget cuts.
“The end of the debt policy has been agreed in Europe. It has to stay that way,” said German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso stressed that member states must implement their promised spending cuts and tax increases.
Both offered the consolation of new efforts to revive struggling economies. EU President Herman Van Rompuy called for an informal summit of the EU’s 27 leaders on May 23 to discuss economic growth and to prepare for a summit in June focused on job creation.
Tsipras’s party came in second Sunday, winning 52 of parliament’s 300 seats with 16.8 percent of the vote. He has the presidential mandate to end the political impasse by forming a governing coalition by Thursday.
Antonis Samaras, head of the winning conservative party that has 108 seats, gave up on the same task after just a few hours Monday when Tsipras spurned his advances.
Tsipras said his government-building drive would focus on ending “the loan agreements of subservience” with Greece’s international bailout creditors.
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