Chronology of Coverage

Feb. 28, 2015

Parliaments of creditor countries approve four-month extension of Greece’s bail-out program; Prime Min Alexis Tsipras characterizes move as victory for Greece, though it goes against his promise to end dealings with Greece’s three creditors—the International Monetary Fund, European Commission and European Central Bank. MORE

Feb. 25, 2015

Editorial assesses four-month extension agreed upon by Greek and European finance ministers, which will continue to provide Greece with much-needed money; suggests that deal will offer more time to design stimulus plan for the Greek economy that will allow country to remain in European Union; expresses hope that Greek Prime Min Alexis Tsipras will be better about delivering on his promises than previous governments. MORE

News analysis; deal that preserves Greece’s place in eurozone also commits nation to fiscal targets and other conditions that Prime Min Alexis Tsipras has rejected. MORE

Editorial warns that only good option eurozone finance ministers have is to allow Greece a little leeway in debt negotiations, particularly given that Greek default and resultant chaos in euro system is distinct possibility; urges Greece’s lenders, particularly Germany, to consider proposals made by Greek Prime Min Alexis Tsipras and Finance Min Yanis Varoufakis. MORE

Greek government of Prime Min Alexis Tsipras, fighting desperately to reduce austerity measures, face longer-term issues that could continue to hobble recovery despite outcome of battle; end of austerity alone would likely not be enough to restore country’s fortunes; business owners and others cite nation’s byzantine bureaucracy as a primary challenge. MORE

Eurozone finance ministers exit emergency meeting with Greek Finance Min Yanis Varoufakis without resolving deep differences over country’s bailout, terms of which government of new Prime Min Alexis Tsipras has rejected. MORE

Greek Prime Min Alexis Tsipras says his government will not extend bailout program with creditors, and will make good on promises to roll back austerity measures, albeit gradually; country faces increasing pressure to reach deal with international creditors and assuage worries it will default on its massive debt. MORE

Standard & Poor’s decision to cut Greece’s credit rating to B- and its warning of country’s possible exit from eurozone increases pressure on new government of Prime Min Alexis Tsipras to reach deal with country’s creditors. MORE

European Central Bank says it will not accept Greek government bonds as collateral for loans due to lack of confidence that country will meet its bailout requirements, indication that bank is taking hard line against newly elected anti-austerity government; decision comes after first meeting between Prime Min Alexis Tsipras and Finance Min Yanis Varoufakis with ECB officials since elections. MORE

Greek Prime Min Alexis Tsipras has gained notoriety for eschewing neck tie, act that public has come to associate with independent thinking and renewal. MORE

For all the opposition to debt forgiveness, the notion has resurfaced as the new government in Athens, facing a cash squeeze, looks for ways to reduce what it owes. MORE

Greek Prime Min Alexis Tsipras and new Finance Min Yanis Varoufakis look to European nations for support in negotiations on Greece’s bailout, while turning heads at the same time for making fashion statements in their lack of neckties; their road show seems politically shrewd, with early stops in nations apparently more willing to help Greece. MORE

As depositors yank their savings from Greek banks, the question is being asked if the E.C.B. would bail them out again. MORE

Investors react badly to election in Greece of new leftist-led government and Prime Min Alexis Tispras; Athens Stock Exchange drops 9.2 percent after previous decline of 11 percent; episode drives up borrowing costs, while shares in Greek banks drop by almost 27 percent and yield on 10-year government bonds spikes to about 10.1 percent. MORE

Greek Prime Min Alexis Tsipras’s new cabinet includes many members of his radical-left Syriza party, and among them is economist Yanis Varoufakis. MORE

Win for Alexis Tsipras and his left-wing party Syriza in Greek elections underscores central tension within European Union when different countries in bloc have conflicting desires; Greece’s voters oppose austerity favored by those in Germany, Finland and the Netherlands, and reconciling these opposing views is challenging task faced by eurozone finance ministers as they meet in Brussels. MORE

Victory of Alexis Tsipras and his left-wing Syriza party in Greek elections is taken as both sign of Greek electorate’s antipathy toward austerity policies and rejection of status quo that has allowed fringe parties on both right and left across Europe to become ascendant; Tsipras, who allied with center-right party Independent Greeks, has received praise from far-right leaders across Europe, underscoring power and breadth of anti-austerity message. MORE

Greek Prime Min Alexis Tsipras faces tough hurdles in his quest to renegotiate country’s bailout loans and cut its huge debt, with international creditors looming; new coalition government needs its next bailout loan of 7 billion euros soon. MORE

Left-wing Syriza party wins decisive victory in national Greek elections, positioning Alexis Tsipras to become country’s next prime minister; wide margin amounts to forceful rejection of European Union’s austerity measures, which Tsipras has vowed to resist, and strongest showing yet amid populist backlash that has spread across Continent. MORE

Paul Krugman Op-Ed column calls on European officials to negotiate in good faith with Alexis Tsipras, likely the next Greek prime minister, and his victorious Syriza party; maintains officials should refrain from lecturing Tsipras on fiscal responsibility, saying they lost all credibility by imposing an unrealistic and catastrophic course of austerity measures on his country. MORE

Polls indicate that many Greeks are inclined to vote for leftist firebrand Alexis Tsipras despite his relative inexperience and warnings from European officials; support for Tsipras is blooming amid climate of fear, which has been stoked by incumbent party of Prim Min Antonis Samaras, and speaks to desperation of voters who are fed up with country’s situation. MORE

Serge Schmemann Editorial Observer holds that Greece’s election, in which left-wing candidate Alexis Tsipras and his anti-austerity Syriza party is expected to win, may at last signal citizens’ rejection of austerity policies that have plunged country deeper into economic malaise; argues that whoever wins must realize there is no easy exit from Greece’s problems. MORE

People across Europe are closely watching Alex Tsipras, left wing-candidate who is poised to become next prime minister of Greece, for signs of whether he has truly moderated his views or done so for political purposes; his agenda, if appointed, includes many cost-cutting measures, salary and pension increases and tax cuts. MORE

European officials issue stern warnings to Greece that it cannot leave the eurozone due to concerns that Alexis Tsipras, head of leftist Greek Syriza party, seems to be narrow front-runner in elections that will determine prime minister; Tsipras has vowed to roll back austerity measures and repudiate some Greek debt, which his opponent Prime Min Antonis Samaras says will lead Greece to default and exit euro. MORE

Greek Parliament is dissolved after failing to choose president; early general elections are widely seen as referendum on austerity programs as left-wing opposition candidate Alexis Tsipras, who has vowed to demand cancellation of country’s debts, emerges as front-runner. MORE

Alexis Tsipras, leftist opposition leader in Greece who could become its next prime minister, calls for European summit to ease crushing debts that threaten not only his country but all of Europe. MORE

Head of Greece’s radical left Syriza party Alexis Tsipras holds hour-long news conference to describe the measures he would take if elected; promises his first act will be to annul the terms of the country’s financial rescue packages. MORE

Greece’s rich elite traditionally guard their wealth, are secretive in nature and avoid public prominence; they are astute investors, pay as little in taxes as possible, and are slow to give to philanthropies trying to combat the mounting social ills that the country’s economic collapse has wrought; the oligarchs have even greater reason to lie low with the ascendency of leftist Alexis Tsipras, who talks of nationalization and taxing the rich. MORE

Alexis Tsipras, head of Greece’s left-wing Syriza party, has put European leaders on edge with his promise to repudiate his country’s austerity-for-loans bailout deal; his once-obscure party gained sudden prominence when it placed second in national elections; Tsipras argues that Greece’s problem is a European problem that needs a European solution. MORE

Left-wing leader Alexis Tsipras, Greece’s most popular politician, believes that a Greek default would not necessarily lead to its exit from the euro zone, contrary to what global experts say; investors have long been preparing for possibility that Greece will default on its debts and leave the euro zone, which they feel will be a certainty should Tsipras come to power. MORE

Greek politicians’ efforts to form a unity government fail, hurtling the country toward new elections and throwing further doubt on whether it can remain a member of the euro zone and avoid defaulting on its debts; President Karolos Papoulias, who held talks hoping to broker a coalition says he will keep trying; Alexis Tsipras, the leader of the Coalition of the Radical Left, refuses to take part in any government that would go through with the harsh austerity measures required in the debt deal. MORE

Unexpected success of Coalition of the Radical Left, or Syriza, led by Alexis Tsipras, has Greece’s creditors trembling with its calls for the country to reject its current loan agreement and nationalize the banks; Syriza, pro-euro yet anti-austerity, is now Greece’s most popular party, with support from 24 percent of the electorate. MORE

May. 10, 2012

Greece’s political leaders fail again to form a government after Alexis Tsipras, the leader of the radical left Syriza party, is unable to gather support for a leftist coalition; opportunity passes to the Socialist party, but that effort is also expected to fail, throwing the country into a second round of elections that Greece’s foreign lenders fear will lead to still more instability. MORE

Alexis Tsipras, leader of Greece’s left-wing party, effectively rules out forming a coalition with the country’s two other dominant parties; refusal raises the prospect of new elections and increases the likelihood that Greece could default on its heavy debt load and potentially exit the euro zone. MORE

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