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Alexis Tspiras, the Greek prime mininster, says Berlin has ‘a moral obligation’ to make amends for years of Nazi occupation

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Greece's new government is committed to `ecological transformation'. Syriza's existing programmatic commitments to work towards "the development of a new paradigm of social, environmental and economic development," and the need to build a public sector of a "new type" could transform energy and climate politics in the EU and beyond.

"Alexis Tsipras stated it correctly. Greece won a battle - perhaps a skirmish - and the war continues. But the political sea-change that SYRIZA's victory has sparked goes on. Greece has already changed; there is a spirit and dignity in Athens that was not there six months ago. Soon enough, new fronts will open in Spain, then perhaps Ireland, and later Portugal, all of which have elections coming. It is not likely that the government in Greece will collapse." *

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Alongside the comments made by Costas Lapavitsas and Stathis Kouvelakis on the Greek government's "capitulation" in the Eurogroup negotiations, Étienne Balibar and Sandro Mezzadra argue for a different approach to the present moment.

So Greece will be receiving the tranche it had initially refused, but on the condition of sticking to the commitments of its predecessors. What we have then is a reaffirmation of the typical German stance of imposing — as a precondition for any agreement and any future disbursement of funding — completion of the “assessment” procedure by the tripartite mechanism (whether this is called “troika” or “institutions”) for supervision of every past and future agreement.

Right-wing governments in Europe's periphery are terrified of a Greek success at the negotiating table. U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders writes, 'If Syriza succeeds in rolling back the EU-mandated measures...It could encourage dissident political movements in other parts of Europe...'

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The Greek election was a warning that, while wealth and political power may be related, they are not the same thing: Governments can be overturned. Europe needs answers. The Greek crisis is a crisis of the entire EU. To one extent or other, every country - even Germany, the EU's engine - is characterized by falling or anemic wage growth, increasing economic inequality, spreading deflation, and an overall decline in living standards.