The Independent notes that the new Greek government (led by the radical left Syriza in partnership with the small, right-wing Independent Greeks party) has been called the “worst possible outcome” for Greece. I would say it was the second-worst of the plausible election outcomes. That is still very bad for Greece, but the new government at least offers clarity to the EU and Greece’s creditors.

The worst outcome would have been one where no government could have gotten a parliamentary majority. The result would have been an appointed caretaker government that could, at most enforce existing laws. Now some conservatives are thinking that doesn’t sound so bad (men’s liberties are never safer than when the legislature is out of session and all that), but Greece’s public administration is so lousy that tax collections sharply declined at the prospect of an election. A caretaker government would preside over a decaying public administration and find itself unable to pay its bills, unable to reach an agreement with the creditors, and probably not even do the things that need to be done to go off the Euro (like institute capital controls and nationalize and recapitalize the banks). The EU and the ECB would also lack a Greek counterpart with which to coordinate a Greek exit from the Euro.

Fortunately, it isn’t quite that bad. Unfortunately, Greece’s situation is still very bad. To form a government, you need 151 votes in the 300 seat Greek parliament. The radical left Syriza finished first in the election but, at 149 seats, was just short of a majority. A Syriza government would require an alliance with one of the smaller parties.

Some alliance were out of the question. The Greek Communist party made it clear it would not join any coalition. On the surface, the Greek Communists are old school waiting-for-the-global-revolution Leninists who stayed loyal to Soviet totalitarianism longer than the Soviet politburo. That’s the surface. In reality, the Greek Communists are a club whose chief activity is nursing hurt feeling over their defeat in the civil war. The party that finished third in the election (behind Syriza and the establishment conservative New Democracy party) were the Neo-Nazis of Golden Dawn. Golden Dawn is toxic to every other political grouping in Greece. Also, Golden Dawn’s leaders are in jail. You often hear about this or that European right-wing party being dangerous, but Golden Dawn are the real evil, thuggish deal.

Syriza and its leader, Alexis Tsipras, could have tried to form a coalition with To Potami (a political party whose name means The River – Greeks have been reduced to naming their parties after adult contemporary radio stations). To Potami was a centrist party who finished fourth in Sunday’s election. It is a party of center-left meritocracy. It wants to renegotiate Greece’s bailout deal to reduce Greece’s interest payments, but it also favors flexible labor markets and an efficient and honest civil service. The closest analogy in American politics would be someone like Matthew Yglesias. The big difference between To Potami and American neoliberals like Yglesias and Josh Barro is over the Euro. The American neoliberals (and many conservatives – like me) think Greece would be better off with its own currency. To Potami’s political bottom line is staying in the Euro at all costs (in Greece, the people most supportive of economic reform are, almost without exception, also the people most supportive of staying in the Euro).

If Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras had worked out a coalition agreement with To Potami, it would have been an indication that Tsipras was intent on a strategy of negotiating a better deal for Greece from the creditors. A deal to sharply cut Greece’s debt burden and allow for greater social welfare expenditures in exchange for continued labor market and civil service reform might have been the endgame (though I don’t know that the creditors would have gone for it).

That’s not what Tsipras did. His extreme left party formed an alliance with the right-wing Independent Greeks party. The media coverage has focused on the fact that Syriza and Independent Greeks are both against the Greek government’s bailout agreement with its creditors (and the resulting tax increases, pension cuts and civil service pay cuts and layoffs).

Some of the media coverage has focused on the ideological differences between Syriza and Independent Greeks on issues like immigration and the role of the Greek Orthodox church in public life. That is focusing way too much on the rhetoric.

Independent Greeks was formed as a protest party for conservative Greek voters who were alienated from the establishment center-right (the New Democracy party) but had too much self-respect to vote for Golden Dawn. Panos Kammenos (the leader and founder of Independent Greeks) talks about getting reparations from Germany and other nonsense to distract from the country’s real problems, but the policies are not the point. Independent Greeks exists to provide parliamentary salaries to some hack politicians, and an outlet for the frustration of a segment of the Greek electorate – in that order. The Independent Greeks aren’t the worst actors in the Greek political system but they are not an alternative to the Greek establishment. They are a cartoon of the cynicism and corruption of the old Greek establishment

By choosing Independent Greeks as the junior coalition partner, Syriza is announcing to the creditors that the new Greek government will be as profligate and corrupt as they please, and if the creditors don’t like it and don’t keep the subsidies coming, then Syriza will blow up the Euro. The EU, ECB, the IMF and Germany’s government should wonder if they want to put up with the likes of Tsipras and Kammenos making demands. Maybe it would make more sense to just cut their losses and let Greece crash out of the Euro. Greece is a free and sovereign country. If Greeks want to live under Tsipras and Kammenos, then so be it. But it should be Greece paying for Greece’s decisions.