The victory
of the radical left-wing Syriza party in Greece
exactly one year ago was a political earthquake for Europe .
Spiros Moskovou takes a very critical look at the past 12 months with Alexis
Tsipras.
Deutche
Welle
After his
surprisingly clear election victory, the people's tribune Alexis Tsipras formed
a new government in record time with the right-wing populist Anel party. Back
then, Tsipras was promising an end to austerity policies and the decisive
renegotiation of the bailout package with Greece
One year
on, Tsipras, now a political realist, is still governing his bankrupt country,
but the left-wing "revolution" is on hold. Tsipras is now overseeing
the third, and the most rigorous, package of austerity measures to be imposed
on Greece
The young
Greek prime minister's development towards political maturity is, in itself,
laudable. What's scandalous is that he has done tremendous damage to his
country. In contrast to all the other economically weak countries of the
European south, Greece Greece
The
question is how long the reformed prime minister will still be allowed to play
the Don Quixote. The Greek economy is stagnant, unemployment is rife, a
significant proportion of Greek society is impoverished. The blame for this
lies not with the hated austerity measures, but with the failure of all the
Greek governments of the past five years to do more than just pay lip service
to reforming the country.
This is
again apparent in the example of the long-overdue reform of the social security
system, a standard desideratum in Greek politics for decades. No political
power ever had the courage to reform the old pension system, which has long
been unaffordable. Now the agreement with its creditors obliges the Syriza
government to deal with the problem. Protests in recent days by various
different groups show just how tough opposition to modernization will be.
But in
addition to their intention to implement big and difficult reforms, the new
year could prove tricky for Syriza and Tsipras for other reasons as well. The
government's parliamentary majority of just three seats is not enough for it to
be secure. For example, Syriza was only able to pass the same-sex marriage law
with the support of the opposition: Anel, its coalition partner, voted against.
And after a series of election defeats and a long period of impotence, the
conservative Nea Dimokratia party has now reformed: Under its new leader,
Kyriakos Mitsotakis, it is once again a political force to be reckoned with.
The latest opinion polls even give Nea Dimokratia a small lead over Syriza.
Nimbus of
'moral superiority' destroyed
In this
changing political landscape, in comparison with the old, traditional parties,
the Syriza grassroots were at least able – until recently – to point to the
"moral" superiority of the Left, which – until recently – had never
formed the government. But in recent weeks a series of cases of nepotism came
to light, and now it can't make this claim so easily. When the chairman of the
Syriza youth party was accused of getting some of his relatives into public
service jobs, he gave a peculiar explanation: His grandfather and grandmother
had not fought in vain under the flag of the Communist resistance organization
EAM against the German occupation, so now the time had come to reward their
grandchildren! One year ago, Syriza announced a new beginning for politics and
society. One year on, it seems that that new beginning is merely the flipside
of the old way of doing things – just even more preposterous.
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