Why Greece Is Back In Chaos

REUTERS/Yorgos Karahalis

Greece was thrown back into chaos Friday after the country's Democratic Left party ditched Athens' ruling coalition, IBTimes' Renee Maltezou reports.

The move came in protest of of PM Atonis Samaras' decision to shutter the country's public broadcaster. Earlier, BBC reported talks to reinstate ERT, which last Tuesday had all of its assets seized and entire staff laid off, had broken down.

Greek 10-year yields temporarily hit 11.34%, the highest level since April, but have since come down slightly.

The Democratic Left was the coalition's smallest, and Samaras will maintain a slim majority in parliament.

DL officials have not yet decided whether they will still offer "external support" of votes to keep the country's bailout terms on track, IBTimes says. The Wall Street Journal's Stelios Bouras, Ed Ballard and Tommy Stubbington say support will be offered "on a case-by-case basis."

The party had given an imprimatur of leftist support to the Troika's harsh bailout terms. As we wrote earlier this week, Samaras' decision to close Greece's equivalent of PBS without consulting coalition members has now caused the goodwill he'd built up to vaporize. 

The move is also really bad timing. The FT's Peter Spiegel reported that Eurozone banks are refusing to roll over Greek debt, prompting the IMF to threaten to withhold its part of the Troika's bailout package. Troika leader Jeroen Dijsselbloem has denied there are any hiccups.

View the original article here