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SYRIZA 120 days in power

25 May 2015 / 14:05:39  GRReporter
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Today Greece marks four months since the latest elections. The "new" government has been in power 120 days now and the balance of this period is not particularly encouraging, writes capital.gr journalist Petros Lazos. Besides some bills to meet the demands of the party clientele, there is nothing new in the crucial area, namely economy. The Ministry of Finance has concentrated its entire attention on the negotiation process but the actual result is zero.

Simultaneously, the market is collapsing and the financial indicators are continuously deteriorating. One quarter of negative economic growth has already been reported and everything indicates that we are confidently moving towards a second such quarter. Not even one of the grandiose pre-election plans was voted in parliament, not to mention its implementation.

Economic development requires investment, both private and public. In a country like Greece, however, which has serious financial problems, making the second type of investment is difficult or nearly impossible. Therefore, the emphasis and planning should be directed to the first type. However, has the government done anything in this direction over the past four months? Has it completed at least one of the many things required to bring investments in the country? Absolutely not. It has not tried to implement even some of its grotesque "growth plans" that it said it had before the elections. You know those that were ready but it did not announce them in order for party opponents not to be aware of them.
 
"But the government is holding tough negations, for us." That is right. Let us put aside "for us" for when the bill comes. And let us ask just how it is coping with the negotiations. Do we have any results in this regard? By Friday afternoon, everything was vague and obscure. Many different rumours and scenarios that the party/government machine took care to be disseminated had disoriented and confused us about what was actually happening and what was not.

Fortunately, however, a summit of the Eastern Partnership took place on 21 and 22 May in Riga. There, the Greek government expected a "political agreement" but it became clear that "the king is naked" instead.

Both the German Chancellor and the French President were clear as well as Christine Lagarde from distant Rio de Janeiro. Angela Merkel’s reply is totally clear, "the outcome should be achieved with the participation of the three institutions and it requires very intensive work." In other words, it is obligatory that any potential agreement should include the International Monetary Fund, and a political agreement is impossible if there is no agreement regarding the measures and reforms. And to get there, it takes a lot of work.

How did the government react? Did it start to work hard to compensate lost time? Of course, it did not. It quietly held the two-day party meeting of the Central Committee it had planned and again discussed at it the ‘star’ topics, namely not signing an "agreement on the memorandum", not paying the International Monetary Fund in June and how good it would be for the country to exit the euro zone. I.e. the message is "we will not hesitate to divide the country or to destroy it" as long as we convince the "natives" and the party triumphs.

Now the "natives" already know. The ship is sailing in the most troubled waters. They are troubled but already transparent. They are full of reefs and rocks but the direction is crystal clear. The government prefers the party interest before the common one. Personally, the only thing I hope is for all to remember where the strategy implemented over the past 193 years since Greece has been an independent country is taking us. Before it is later than it is already...

 

Tags: GreeceSYRIZAGovernmentNegotiatinsCreditors
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