Tsipras Envisions a “Post-Troika” Greece

By on September 15, 2012 in Economy, News, Politics

SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras (R) is taking shots at the government and international lenders again

Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) leader Alexis Tsipras, who has been mostly silent for months while the uneasy coalition of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has been preparing $14.6 billion in budget cuts aimed primarily at the poor, workers and pensioners, said Greece should walk away from its deal with international lenders.

Greece is surviving on a first round of $152 billion in rescue loans from the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) but is waiting for the last installment of $38.8 billion, as well as a second bailout of $172 billion that has been delayed until the government imposes more cuts and reforms.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Thessaloniki International Fair, the main opposition party leader called for a halt to the country’s continuing slide into debt and a deeper recession he blamed on the austerity measures insisted upon by the lenders and said Greece should start preparing itself for a “post-Troika era.” He said the country could no longer stand the impact of an “absurd fiscal policy,” of relying on foreign aid.

Pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions have worsened a deep recession now in its fifth year, put nearly two million people out of work, closed 68,000 businesses and shrunk the economy by 7 percent with all indications it will get worse if the Samaras-led government puts more harsh conditions on Greek citizens.

“The protracted recession, the unprecedented crisis that has hit our country is suffocating the real economy,” the leftist leader said, adding that it was time for the opposition to lead a shift in economic policy. “We are obliged to change direction, we are obliged to overhaul the prospects for growth in the economy,” Tsipras said. He didn’t offer any ideas, only opposition to the current policies.

Samaras’ New Democracy Conservatives and his reluctant partners, the PASOK Socialists and tiny Democratic Left, have seen their popularity plummet over the proposed tough new measures that are said to include taxing the poor, raising the retirement age to 67, slashing lump sum payments pensioners earned over a career of working, more pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions, a six-day-78-hour work week and reducing severance payments drastically for those who lose their jobs.

As the head of the main opposition party, Tsipras was giving a traditional address after Samaras broke with it and declined to talk about the state of the country’s economy at the fair. Politicians in favor of austerity have been hounded ever since the measures began being imposed two-and-a-half years ago with protests so vehement that they brought down the former government of then PASOK leader George Papandreou last year.

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  • Anonymous

    Tsipiras is a delusiional commie nut case. If Greece wants to end up an oppressive third world banana republic like Norther Korea vote Syriza or Golden Dawn. For any sane Greeks, vote middle ground parties.

  • johndenton46

    Themselves guilty of the crash, financial elites burdening the less wealthy with undeserved austerity bring to mind the ancient custom of the whipping boy. Default is the correct response.

  • Choralife

    Tsipras never offers any solutions, just blah retoric telling people what they want to hear. Run away for your responsibilites, blame everyone else and we’ll all be living in fantasy land. What an idiot and equally as dangerous as GD.

  • Anonymous

    Exactly. Parties like Syriza are irrational. They complain about no jobs and no money then rant against the very businesses that produces wealth and jobs. Rather than direct their energy towards the corrupt bloated government that actually created this situation then direction it at some corporate boogieman.

    We need to make our government more accountable (especially when it comes to balancing books) but I’d prefer to  envision a post far leftist Greece that is pro-business rather than irrationally anti-business as it is today.

  • John

    Tsipras is a typical mouth piece for the idiot class. 

    Let’s rail against the government….and offer nothing but fairy tale solutions.

    Let’s rail against businesses….and demand more money.

    Let’s scream for more illegal migrants to be granted citizenship…..when we can’t even employ the indigenous. 

    Who is going to pay for all this? Who is going to craate these jobs? 

    Unicorns.

  • Anonymous

     Couldn’t have said it better myself.

    Far leftists are emotive creatures that create fanasy worlds for themselves. Their totalitarian  government politics have been shown over and over again empirically to be be a dismal failure.

    The funny thing about the situation is the left keep blaming “capitalism’ for Greece’s economic problems when in fact it was SOCIALISM that was to blame. Too much big corrupt government finally caught up with us .

  • Anonymous

     Voting for Syriza is a vote for ethnic suicide.

  • Anonymous

    The mistake the commies make is fantasy thinking that just straight defaulting will mean no more cuts. If anything the cuts and drop in quality of life would be far far more dramatic if Greece leaves the Euro and funding lifeline from EU stops. Greece even in its current mess is far wealthier per capita than any communist state. (see North Korea)

    Granted there are limits to cuts but based on our current level of production we haven’t reached them yet. Once we privatize most of the money losing government owned businesses only then will we have political currency to push back and ask for further debt reduction. (if needed) .

    Our goal should be a primary surplus and working towards paying off principle. Even if we are a poorer country in the present at least this way we no longer need depend on foreign funding and work towards a better future.   The best way to achieve it is to reduce government taxes and collect taxes better  (not by raising taxes which commies want which only punishes honest businesses that create jobs)

  • Anonymous

    Greeks should be supporting Greek businesses… but only Greek businesses that are pro-hellenic. For example any Greek business that hires illegals (not to be confused with legal immigrants) should be shunned,  Hit them in their pocket books for putting their greed in front of the needs of their country.

  • Dan Corcoran

    Watching and waiting to learn … if Greek society is ready to create an environment for private business to create jobs vs. remaining the 97th most difficult country in the world to build a private business. It seems like a wild mistake to spread the pain over 4 years instead of 2. I wouldn’t want to be the public servant fired, but a public sector capable of bringing the needed change needs to be efficient. That cannot happen  with public servants on permanent tenure.

  • Anonymous

    I agree Greece needs to focus on business (tired of listing to these ranting hysterical  rioting far leftist extremists). That said,  Samaras doesn’t have a majority. He also has to get agreement from leftist parties that cater to Greek populists. There is no point in agreeing to short term cuts if he can’t actually push through all the changes in a short amount of time. The other parties are clearly making it difficult to institute cuts (despite that they agreed to them)

    Some in the  EU/IMF also need to stop resorting to demagoguery against Greeks and be a little more flexible rather than constantly resort to red line rhetoric. Contrary to the bizarre claims of some foreign populists (looking for cheap get-tough-on-Greece political points to please their own electorates) Greece has already made massive cuts in spending while at the same time under enormous political and economic strains. (not to mention Greece, 2% of the EU economy, gets to listen to endless over-the-top negative stereotypting rhetoric by media world wide for a government debt issue that clearly is much bigger than our tiny economy)

    Granted borrowing too much money was the fault of my homeland but its not like other nations haven’t made mistakes. Germans should know best of all mistakes on national level are best forgiven than perpetually punished (see Versailles treaty versus Marshall Plan). Some unfairly claim Greece has made no effort to change when no EU nation has even remotely made as many dramatic changes as we have.

  • Dan Corcoran

    I am confused by the anti-immigrant statements made in Greece. Lots of countries need and want immigrants for the many benefits they bring. If Greece doesn’t want them, send them to USA.

  • Choralife

     It is not immigrants per se, rather illegal immigrants that are the problem here. The wars and unrest in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya and political instability in other African countries have inundated Greece with wave after wave of refugees trying to enter the EU for years. We can’t cope and get very little help from other EU countries when asked. This is not to say that illegals are the cause of the current crisis as some racists would have us believe, we ourselves are to blame for that, but illegals are further burdening an already overburdened infrastructure.

    But you are correct, any country needs the skills that immigrants can bring. And right now Greece needs all the skilled labour it can get if we are to begin producing on a larger scale and dig ourselves out of this hole.

  • Choralife

    Yes we should, souvlaki instead of Mcdonalds, locally produced drinks instead of Coca Cola products, local farm produce instead of the imported, anything produced by a Greek company should be supported by Greeks instead of watching money flow outside the country and into foreign hands.

    It has been a problem here for years, people labouring under the misapprehension that anything foreign must be better than local. It is simply not true, I’ve only been buying Greek products (whenever possible) for years and they are equally as good as (if not better) than many mass produced foreign products.