Greece's ruling party, Syriza, is "anti-capitalist", centrally controlled economy and anti-elitist. This is no secret, the party members have said so in so many words many times in the past. Accordingly, now that the party is in power, its generals have promisedto recruit back civil servants who had been let go to reduce state payroll, to withdraw the distinction from the country's top schools (rather than try to inspire other schools to follow in their footsteps) and stop privatisations and concessions (airports, etc). Among many other things: raise minimum salaries,overturn some flexibility in the labour market introduced in recent years, etc.
All these are consistent with the party's communist publicly declared leanings.
These are also consistent with the slight rise in unemployment in January 2015. Greece has the 5th highest unemployment rate worldwide and the highest in youth unemployment: 54-63% (no-one seems sure of how much it actually is).
After coming to power with the help of right-wing activists, Syriza proceeded to "put its actions where its mouth was" and launched a noise campaign in the EU asking for an "end to austerity" and requested to negotiate a new programme which would lead the country out of its financial straits and make the astronomical debt serviceable.
(The debt is now over 180% of GDP, so it is, to all intents & purposes, unserviceable).
So, the country's premier, A Tsipras and its Finance Minister -- whose command of English is excellent and who can put together a coherent sentence in that language with extended vocabulary -- launched a noise campaign: non aggressive, polite and apologetic but firm in the principles.
Not bad especially for the media part & the public relations. Much of it was for local consumption, but in the beginning it worked and earned them international awareness as well.
Now that the noise has died down, that the Eurogroup has made numerous proposals and time is running out, the point Greece's envoys are making is still the same: we cannot accept an austerity plan that brings misery, etc etc.
OK, what is it you do propose?
(Other than a total debt write off?)
The answer is, nothing.
Greece's Syriza has no plan, no blueprint and no concrete proposal to bring to the table.
In a well written article, Yiannis Varoufakis, Greece's English- savvy Finance minister in a well written article in the NYT :
"...No more loans — not until we have a credible plan for growing the economy in order to repay those loans, help the middle class get back on its feet and address the hideous humanitarian crisis. No more “reform” programs that target poor pensioners and family-owned pharmacies while leaving large-scale corruption untouched..."
Who could put it better???
Except for four things:
a) How will you help the middle class get back on its feet with centralised economy and an inefficient investment and private enterprise averse government. It is against your party's self-proclaimed philosophy. Or by raising taxes even further, as announced...
b) Where will you get the funding to achieve this, and does growing the already bloated public sector go in the above direction?
c) Combating corruption, supporting private enterprise, simplifying bureaucracy, getting ride of "nuisance" 3rd party taxes (small amounts inserted into PPC bills, employers cost, etc), reducing the Public Sector, etc are all part of the initial memorandum Greece signed.
Much of what is deplored, justly, such as the poor pensioners, etc. were not part of any memorandum or EU agenda. They are part of the Greek government's own agenda. These are measures taken by the Greek government in exchange for NOT implementing certain reforms: opening closed professions and reducing the Public Sector payroll are two such reforms, initially agreed upon but never actually tackled.
So where's the drift between Greece and its partners?
Who knows.
Maybe: in the ruling party's communication strategy aimed at internal consumption. Otherwise, there is nothing anyone would want more than to do just what friend Varoufakis wrote.
Maybe: because Greece's leaders have a positioning of opposition to all until the others come up with a good enough plan. That they have no plan is obvious to all but the Greeks themselves (but that is no surprise as Greek media all tow the party line).
OK, but how do you know when the plan is good?
That is an easy one: when the plan proposed allows you to offer kickbacks to your cronies.
...and this all leads us to d):
What exactly are you going to do to "...get the middle class back on its feet", "eradicate corruption", etc.
In other words, "I'm with you: what specific measures are you going to take and how much money do you need to do take them?"
Of course, there is no answer to. Not yet, anyway. Which is why Greece's government is asking for a 6 months' extension: not to implement reform, but to define what it is going to do. (And maybe get its cronies out of the way of reform.)
BUT
When all is said and done, Greece's Syriza has an unique opportunity in its hands to do some good for the country.
While doing good for the country has rarely been the obvious top item in Greek politicians' agenda, Syriza would have little to lose and something to gain; they will go down in posterity as having done something and, while they are sure to lose future elections and power, it's not as if they will starve. MP pensions in Greece are very generous and the current campaign is sure to land Varoufakis a superb job anyway.
HOW?
Syriza controls the vociferous few, professional demonstrators & union cronies, who customarily demonstrate against...
These are people who can and have put aside national considerations and solidarity in the name of being negative: blocking ports in the height of the tourist season thereby killing local tourism economy, locking out factories in protest against the dismissal of a man suspected of theft, who supported civil servants found guilty of misuse and abuse...
Accordingly, they can just as well put aside matters of political solidarity and campaign in favour of reorms that no-one has ever touched:
- fight corruption (in Greece mostly within the Public Sector)
- reduce the Public Sector payroll
- open closed professions
- etc...
They are very few and very noisy, so their support does not cost much. But they, with the help of subservient media can do the trick. And blame it on others, as Greek politicians are always wont to do.
 |
| The most unlikely people could make the most needed difference for the country. Will they? |
There is hope yet, but given Greece's political past, and politicians' indifference to their country as a whole, the hope is remote.
No comments:
Post a Comment