Stratfor: Greece will probably return to the center of the European crisis

Stratfor is an American publisher and global intelligence company

An article titled “Europe: When the Unthinkable Becomes Possible” that was published by Stratfor, an American publisher and global intelligence company, forecasts that Greece will probably return to the center of the European crisis in 2015, when the Greek parliament attempts to elect a new president.

According to Stratfor’s report, the economic crisis in Europe is slowly but steadily eroding the political systems of many countries, leaving room for new actors to emerge, actors who are a threat to the supremacy of the traditional powers.

Specifically for Greece, the U.S. intelligence company says that the country offers an example of how things in Spanish politics could turn out in the future.

“Like Spain, Greece had a relatively stable two-party system that saw the center-right and the center-left alternate periods in power. But the economic crisis led to the rapid rise of the left-wing Syriza party, which opposes the EU austerity measures supported by the mainstream parties,” says Stratfor, adding that in 2012, it took two elections for the mainstream parties to form an alliance to keep Syriza at bay and that in Greece, where political rivalries are old and deep, such an alliance would have seemed impossible before the crisis.

The global intelligence company forecasts that “Greece will probably return to the center of the European crisis next year when the Greek parliament attempts to elect a new president,” and notes that if the parliament fails, it will be forced to hold early elections.

“With Syriza still at the top of the opinion polls, it would be more difficult to keep the upstart party from power this time around. Syriza has promised to restructure Greece’s debt, a move that would probably make financial markets nervous and generate uncertainty across the eurozone at a time when Europe thought it had found some stability,” underlined Stratfor.