The Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ trip in Davos is very similar to his disastrous visit to New York last year, where he went to attract American investors to Greece. Instead of investors, he attracted tons of ridicule in the press and social media.
Speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative on September 28, Tsipras not only showed that he doesn’t have a handle on the English language, but he also showed that he doesn’t have a grasp of what real economy is. Both of which are unacceptable qualities for the leader of a country. On top of that, he wasn’t smart enough to use a translator.
Despite the push from former U.S. President Bill Clinton, the Greek prime minister failed even to win the sympathy of prospective investors. His approach was more like asking for charity than luring investors to a country that is full of potential geographically.
Mr. Tsipras went to the World Economic Forum at Davos still without having learned his economy lessons. Again, he appeared in front of top European officials and the head of the International Monetary Fund as a beggar asking for debt relief and money to tackle the refugee influx. At least this time he spoke in Greek and had a translator.
Instead of appearing as a strong leader who is determined to get his country out of the crisis, he whined about the crisis like a crybaby. Then he remembered his rebellious Marxist youth and acted like a defiant teenager speaking of inequalities between the North and the South. He spoke about the need for growth and promised, once again, that Greece will implement the necessary reforms to get out of the crisis. He also talked about a stronger Europe of solidarity.
To that German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble made the caustic remark, “If we want to make Europe stronger, then we should implement what we agreed to implement. We could just say it’s the implementation, stupid.” This paraphrasing of Bill Clinton’s “It’s the economy, stupid!” was a jab at Mr. Tsipras’ unreliability and ignorance. Or maybe it was simply a cry of indignation. Because Greece has implemented very little so far.
Then the Greek prime minister spoke with IMF chief Christine Lagarde asking for debt relief when in fact he has often expressed the opinion that the Fund should not participate in Greece’s bailout. One wonders if the managing director of the IMF took him seriously or talked to him out of politeness.
And no matter how Mr. Tsipras pretends he understands how a real economy works when he is abroad, back home his cabinet members pretend they live in a utopian leftist society where economy means to tax everything that moves and private investment is an anathema.
Examples that most SYRIZA ministers live in Marxist la-la land abound. The minister of transport signed the privatization of ailing regional airports but declared he is against it. So did the minister of shipping when he signed the deal for the Piraeus Port. The environment minister refuses to give a license to a mining company that already operates in northern Greece and has invested hundreds of millions euros and employs 2,000 people. The ministry of education refuses to connect Greek universities with the job market because scientists should not fall in the hands of capitalists.
Another indication that Mr. Tsipras has no clue about how an economy works is that he has baptized Greece’s economic crisis as a “humanitarian crisis.” He either doesn’t remember that everything was fine when the economy was good until 2008 or he is outright lying. So, in order to put an end to the “humanitarian crisis,” as he calls it, all he needs to do is start building a good economy. Trying to turn a free economy into a state-controlled, state-subsidized economy without having the funds can only bring Greece to post-war misery.
And as for creating a good economy he needs technocrats with knowledge and skills, not ignorant party members who used to belong to the Greek Communist Party and spent their lives theorizing about how bad capitalism is.
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