Radical Left Gets Shot at Running Greece

Irate Greek voters may have shoved their country out of the eurozone for good in Sunday's election, by crippling the mainstream parties that voted for the country's bailout. The head of the Conservative New Democracy Party gave up trying to form a ruling coalition within hours yesterday, the Washington Post reports, passing the baton off to the party with the next most votes—the Radical Left Coalition. They're unlikely to succeed either, but if they did it would be Greece's first leftist government in modern history.

Left Coalition head Alexis Tsipras is vehemently opposed to the bailout and all who support it; he's already rejected an offer from New Democracy to cooperate. "We're not going to let in through the window what Greek people kicked out the door," he said, according to Reuters. If no party can form a government, new elections will have to be held. But Greece only has a month to come up with $14 billion in spending cuts according to its bailout agreement—and European leaders yesterday indicated they'd hold them to that. (More Greece stories.)