“We are still here, after four-and-a-half years of struggle, the struggle to keep Greece standing upright,” is how main opposition party SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras started his speech at the 84th Thessaloniki International Fair on Saturday evening.
Former prime minister Tsipras said that when SYRIZA became government (in January 2015) “the country was amidst a humanitarian crisis, unemployment was stuck at 27 pct after eight consecutive years of compacted economic recession, with the country losing cumulatively 25 pct of its wealth, with banks on the verge of collapse, empty (social insurance) funds, an inability to handle public debt and a total deregulation of the labor market,” Tsipras recounted.
The SYRIZA leader said Greece’s problems were not “magically solved,” but “the country’s image has changed radically and no one can deny it,” he assured.
In an apologetic tone, Alexis Tsipras said that “we have shown an unwillingness to act faster and more decisively to take relief, anti-austerity measures.” he added “a second point of self-criticism concerns our determination to address issues related to the functioning of the state,” and that his government “did not demonstrate the courage it needed to break through the para-centers of power in branches of the government and beyond, from ministries and banks to the audit authorities and the judiciary.”
He added that they did not manage to communicate his government achievements.
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I could go on and on explaining why SYRIZA was a terrible government for Greece but I have to say this: no other government than a Tsipras-led government could have accomplished what Tsipras accomplished, namely, that Greece today is viewed as a stable (politically and economically) member of the Eurozone and of the EU. Tsipras accomplished that by performing an incredible somersault. Essentially, he agreed to every screw that the EU put upon him. Perhaps it helped that he started enjoying being viewed as the darling of international elites, which undoubtedly he has become. Unwittingly, he made it possible for his successor to embark on a growth strategy for Greece.
If any government other than a Tsipras-led government had attempted to do the same thing as Tsipras has done, Tsipras would have mobilized the masses on the streets and the result would have been terrible for Greece.
Thus, Tsipras has become sort of a tragic figure. He has done everything no one else could have accomplished and yet, someone else will get the praise for it.
so it is