An extensive report by the New York Times compares SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras to the new “pied piper” coming to the rescue of Greece after the May 6 election outcome that ranked his party the second major political power in the country.
“Charismatic but dangerous,” Tsipras is being compared to two controversial figures of Greek history: the ancient Greek Alcibiades and modern times Communist leader Zachariadis. The first is well known for his demagogic language that convinced the people of Athens to launch a fruitless war in Sicily after the death of Pericles, and is the one who betrayed the Athenians to the Spartans and the Persians. The second was the Greek Communist Party leader and hero, who took over power in Greece after the Nazi Occupation and fueled a civil war costing the country more than 50,000 lives and postponing its post-war development.
According to the US daily paper, Tsipras has exploited the anger of the Greek people who watch their earnings shrink and their jobs being threatened. With short and precise anti-austerity orientated slogans, Tsipras succeeded in aiming at the frustration of the Greek people who are currently going through the fifth year of recession. “Tsipras boldly proclaimed that his party will not honor the commitments Greece made in exchange for funds to keep the country afloat,” reads the report.
According to Greek-American author and investigative journalist Nicholas Gage, who wrote the report on the 37-year-old leftist leader, Tsipras was politically clever enough to promise the Greeks the defiance of the already signed agreements between the country and the EU/IMF/ECB and staying in the Euro zone. His refusal to join a coalition government and his tactics of calling the pro-memorandum party leaders “traitors” were a strong combination earning him the votes of many Greeks.
“If he comes to power and refuses to honor the country’s commitments and Greece is forced out of the euro and back to the drachma, the very people Tsipras pretends to champion, Greek workers, will suffer the most. He will be able to print money and raise salaries and pensions, but inflation will reduce purchasing power below anything Greeks can imagine,” predicts Gage in his article.
The potential of isolating Greece from Europe and bringing an unimaginative poverty wave upon the Greek people are two of the most imminent dangers following the political maneuvers of SYRIZA’s leader.
To read the original opinion story, visit The Champion of Greek Outrage.
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