Greece has a government, of sorts

Greece has a new Prime Minister. But no one could call the coalition that he is set to unveil this evening stable. For the other two parties, Pasok and the Democratic Left, are both stressing that none of their members will become cabinet ministers, leaving New Democracy and various worthies to carry the can for the austerity measures.

Pasok is also saying that it has entered coalition to take on ‘the burden of responsibility to renegotiate the bailout agreement’. This suggests that if Prime Minister Samaras is incapable of extracting many concessions from the Troika then the coalition will be in deep political trouble.

Syriza , meanwhile, sit and wait, safe in the knowledge that they’ll be able to fight the next election — when it comes — as the ‘clean hands party’.