Anti-austerity parties WON 52% of the vote in Sunday's elections – and the far-left SYRIZA Party has doubled its share of the vote since May, winning enough enthusiastic support that it can continue to push the new Greek coalition government – whatever it might look like –away from austerity and toward pro-growth policies. As SYRIZA Party leader Alexis TSipras said in a speech on Monday, "Some believe that [conservatives] won the elections. But, the people have won the elections because now they cannot proceed with bailout agreements and they recognize this, both in Greece and in Brussels." And he's right: leaders within the New Democracy Party are now calling for a renegotiation of the austerity and bailout terms with the EU and IMF – despite warnings from Germany that Greece can't do that. In particular, New Democracy officials are asking to spread the length of time from two years to four years over which Greece is supposed to cut 11.7 billion euros from their budget . A senior EU official told Reuters that the terms of the deal are "changeable." Austerity is losing its momentum in Europe – so how much longer until Mitt Romney and his Republican buddies get the message here?
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