“The man who scares Europe” – so the title of French Paris Match – Alexis Tsipras, leader of left-wing SYRIZA warned Greece’s lenders of a euro collapse, should the aid to debt-ridden country be stopped. In an interview to Wall Street Journal, that sees the young politician as potential next prime minister, Tsipras said that a Greek collapse would drag down the rest of the euro zone.
WSJ: Defiant message from Greece
“The head of Greece’s radical left party—throwing down a gauntlet that could increase tensions between Greece and its frustrated European creditors—said he sees little chance Europe will cut off funding to the country but that if it does, Athens will stop paying its debts.
A financial collapse in Greece would drag down the rest of the euro zone, said Alexis Tsipras, the 37-year-old head of the Coalition of the Radical Left, known as Syriza, and potentially the country’s next prime minister. Instead, he said, Europe must consider a more growth-oriented policy to arrest Greece’s spiraling recession and address what he called a growing “humanitarian crisis” facing the country.
“Our first choice is to convince our European partners that, in their own interest, financing must not be stopped,” Mr. Tsipras said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. He said Greece doesn’t intend to take any unilateral action, “but if they proceed with unilateral action on their side, in other words they cut off our funding, then we will be forced to stop paying our creditors, to go to a suspension in payments to our creditors.”
In USA this is not an issue. In Greece, people complain about false debts and charges to foreign and domestic banks, thus people are Glad to pay,but want check the bills.
In Greece which follows the Tradition of the Roman Emperors , The Governor of Federal Reserve is not obligated to report nor subject to Government Control. The PM is not responsible to Parliament.
Tsipras, ANEL and another party ask for international Financial Audit of the Greek debt. The right and left agree and found a scapegoat in Tsipras.
Yeah, he wants to stop delivering the Greek side of the deal, but “threatens” the troika not to react on this with stopping the money flow. What a hollow threat that is! Everybody who looks up the numbers can see that essentially the troika is making the debt payments now, with the money of the rescue plan. About 80% of that money circulates to the lennders. So, Tsipras doesn’t have any trump card. It would be cheaper (>20% saved) for the troika to stop the support and use those Euros to help any European bank that may get in trouble in case of a Greece default. Tsipras is the wannabe emperor without clothes, promising “money is there”, but avoiding to say that he doesn’t have it and won’t have it. That’s just Greek politics as usual, demagoguery instead of solutions. No change at all.
What a leader Mr. Tsipras is. He basically claims that Greece doesn’t have to abide by the terms of the deal it signed but troika has to keep its part of the deal. His policy is to gamble on the assumed high cost an exit of Greece from the Eurozone will have on its remaining 16 members. But, what would happen if he loses the bet and the members of the Eurozone have developed a support mechanism, a well thought plan B to manage such a crisis. They had almost two years to prepare for such scenario. What would the consequences for the Greek economy be if he is wrong? Politicians who gamble with the life savings of Greek citizens, with the Greek economy and its future, don’t deserve to be elected because they are simply too irresponsible and too dangerous to hold a public office.
Well, to be fair, Samaras voiced almost the same ideas before joining the government. That’s why I’m so disappoinnted in Tsipras, I thought he had a better plan than that, realistic proposals for some changes of the memorandum conditions that would at least be debatable. Apparently, not. But then, where is the responsible candidate, coming up with reasonable ideas, who would be a better alternative? So far, it looks like it’s Venizelos who offers the most reality based statements. D’oh.
A party of 5% before the elections cannot have a governance programme within 2 weeks. Can it?
Tispras is a smart guy and had more than enough time to come up with a reasonable plan, kt. If he isn’t ready now, he shouldn’t have run for prime minister in the first place!
I agree with you that Mr. Tsipras doesn’t have a realistic, well thought plan to tackle the economic problems Greece is facing right now. His policy is to tell some Greek voters what they want to hear. Namely, that troika is obliged to lend us money but we don’t have to live within our means. He has engaged in an endless, repetitive political game of blaming others for the economic crisis and absolving his party from any responsibility. Furthermore, he imposed terms for his party to participate in a government of national unity he very well knew other politicians will outright reject. His statements and the ones elected MPs of his party made after the last elections, are full of contradictions, incoherent, blundering, irresponsible and utterly demagogic.
Mr. Venizelos is one of the few political leaders who has accepted responsibility for the mistakes his party made in the past. He has the expressive clarity, the negotiating skills, the economic experience and finally a realistic plan to lead Greece out of the memorandum and to the open markets for lending in three years.
it’s too simplified to say “Apologies” for mistakes of the past that financial enlsave the people for the rest of their lives. How about some thorough investigation and punishment (confiscation, returns etc).
BTW: I never understood why ND-PASOK-DEMLEFT did not form a gov. I am sure Samaras, Venizelos could ‘pick up’ some breakaway members to make the 151+ meet.
Demleft steadfastly refused to join a government without Syriza being there, too, because they know only too well that taking part in passing unpopular measures would make their voters run to the opposition. They only have to look at Pasok’s fate to come to that conclusion. Only a government that includes the other left wing alternative Syriza would give Demleft a chance to survive politically. So, this is yet another example of putting partisan interests over national ones, but an understandable one. You can’t reasonably expect that party to commit political suicide, kt.
I say it again: if ND-PASOK wanted to form a gov they could. But Samaras wanted to go to repeat elections (he had said so before May6: if not majority, elections again) therefore he dropped the mandate just 5 hours after he received it form the persident. If his negotation capacity and ability is so weak, how will he manage to revise/re-negotiate with EU on MoU?
I wouldn’t trust that old political fox Venizelos 100%, but of all the candidates, he’s still the one who inspires the most confidence in his qualification as a head of state. He has proven to have a rather realistic view of the situation and to be willing to put his nation’s interests above his own political ones (or else Pasok wouldn’t be so unpopular now). Tsipras, on the other hand, looks like he’s a patriotic guy, too, but he’s losing badly with his unrealistic solutions for the crisis. His ideas, as their are known so far, can’t work. So, he’s either naive, or, much more likely imho, yet another politican who promises the moon and the stars in order to get elected, knowing fully well that he can never deliver that. If I could vote in Greece, I’d rather chose the old fox Venizelos, who more honestly runs on a plan of “blood, sweat, and tears”.