GREEK politicians of left and right set out their stalls over the weekend for a crunch election that could send shockwaves tearing through Brussels.

Frontrunner Alexis Tsipras of the left-wing Syriza party said that “the necessary change in Europe begins here in Greece. We must finish with austerity.”

Mr Tsipras claims that a Syriza government would renegotiate terms of the bailouts imposed on Greece by the “troika” of the EU, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, which have slashed jobs, wages and pensions and forced the sell-off of public assets.

“With vigorous negotiations, we guarantee our country’s truly equitable participation in the eurozone,” he said — despite signals that the EU is likely to call the bluff of any Greek government that seeks to overturn the neoliberal austerity drive promoted by Brussels and Berlin.

The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) argues that a shift in power to the working class is impossible within the imperialist EU.

Sources close to German Chancellor Angela Merkel reinforced that message at the weekend, telling Der Spiegel newspaper that she regarded a Greek exit from the eurozone as “almost inevitable” if Mr Tsipras wins, as polls suggest he will.

And EU bosses from commission president Jean-Claude Juncker down have warned that whoever is elected will be expected to stick to their privatisation and spending cuts agenda.

Such an uncompromising stance would see a Syriza government forced either to abandon its anti-austerity policies or its support for continued membership of the single currency.

But a Greece forced to leave the eurozone could prompt other countries trapped in the EU straitjacket to seek an exit too.

Former prime minister George Papandreou also launched his electoral ambitions on Saturday, abandoning his Pasok party — languishing on 4 per cent in the polls — to form the Movement of Democrat Socialists.

Mr Papandreou claimed to represent opposition to the “corrupt” Establishment which led Greece to financial ruin, although he was head of government when the crisis struck and his father and grandfather were also prime ministers of Greece.