Greek election: Far-left seeks anti-austerity coalition

The leader of Greece's far-left is to try to form a government after parties backing an international bailout deal failed to assemble a coalition. Alexis Tsipras aims to put together a cabinet that will reject austerity measures imposed as part of the deal.

But analysts also say his attempts, following Sunday's poll, are likely to fail to achieve the necessary numbers. Voters in Greece, France and Italy have all largely swung in favour of anti-austerity candidates this week. In Greece, both the centre-right New Democracy and former coalition partners Pasok, the traditional parties of power, saw their support drain away in favour of radical parties on the left and right. France's President-elect, Socialist Francois Hollande, said in his victory speech that he would seek an alternative to austerity. And partial results from local elections in Italy suggest a marked swing away from mainstream parties. An anti-euro protest movement led by comedian Beppe Grillo made significant inroads in Parma and Genoa. Reacting to the election results, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said austerity measures were "not negotiable" and described Greece's reforms as of "utmost importance". Markets slumped following the election results in France and Greece, but largely recovered later. The Athens stock exchange, however, had plunged 6.67% by the end of Monday. In return for two EU/IMF bailouts worth a total of 240bn euros (£190bn; $310), Greece agreed to make deep cuts to pensions and pay, raise taxes and slash thousands of public sector jobs. Numbers game Mr Tsipras, who heads the Syriza group, will on Tuesday be officially given three days to negotiate a coalition by President Karolos Papoulias. New Democracy leader Antonis Samaris, whose party topped the poll, tried and failed to put together a coalition on Monday. His party beat Syriza by a slim margin, but under Greek rules, has a 50-seat bonus in parliament for coming first. The 38-year-old Syriza leader has already promised to stitch together a left-wing cabinet to reject the "barbaric" measures associated with the bailout deal. "We will exhaust all possibilities to reach an understanding, primarily with the forces of the left," Mr Tsipras said. But the numbers just do not seem to add up, the BBC's Matthew Price in Athens says.