EDITORIALS

Hope in the Grecian Air

Syriza has brought back hope and national pride in Greece, but will it succeed?

he victory of the Coalition of the Radical Left known colloquially by its acronym, Syriza (Synaspisms tis Rizospastiks Aristers) in the Greek elections on 25 January
has, on the one hand, sent shock waves across the Troika
(the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and
the European Central Bank) and the bond markets, whereas, on
the other, it has aroused a great deal of hope for better days among
the Greek populace. What might the new government that was
sworn in on 27 January with Alexis Tsipras as prime minister
and the well-known leftKeynesian economist and erratic
Marxist (by his own admission), Yanis Varoufakis, as finance
minister mean for the majority of the Greek people who have
been the victims of an externally imposed reduction of wages,
pensions, and social spending as part of the quid pro quo for three
successive bailouts in 2010, 2011 and 2012? And, importantly,
what might the coming to power of Syriza mean for Europe?
Since its evolution in 2004 and until the euro crisis hit the
Greek economy in 2010, Syriza just about managed to secure
parliamentary representation, crossing the minimum threshold
of 3% of the vote, getting to 5% in the October 2009 elections in
which Pasok (the Greek acronym of the Panhellenic Socialist
Movement), the so-called socialdemocratic party, won 44% of the
vote and formed the government. So it was Pasok that presided
over the collapse of the Greek economy in 2010 and the bankruptcy of the fisc, and this brought wind to Syrizas sails. In the
May 2012 polls and particularly the one that became inevitable
just a month later, Syriza got into second place with 26.9% of the
vote, just a little less than the right-wing New Democracy (ND)
partys 29.7%. The ND and Pasok, practising harsh austerity in
the midst of a deep recession over the last six years the economy
has shrunk by 25% since 2010 have totally failed to stand up
to the Troika impositions, merely pleading with it to relax the
so-called conditionalities. Greeces public debt now stands at
around 320 billion euros, 175% of its gross domestic product.
How may Syriza make a difference, this in the face of the utter
failure of ND and Pasok, the latter two merely agreeing to the further austerity and structural reform demanded by the creditors
as the quid pro quo for the rollover of the debt? In the negotiations
that will ensue this month when huge repayments are due, the

Economic & Political Weekly

EPW

february 14, 2015

vol l no 7

Syriza-headed government will most probably use both disobedience of the conditionalities imposed by the Troika and the threat
to deploy its veto power in the European Council to enhance its
bargaining power. That will be as tough a bargaining stance as is
possible, and it will be combined with significant additional taxation of the rich (even as they siphon off their income and wealth to
Zurich, London, Frankfurt and New York!), the bringing back of a
decent minimum wage, and a greater allocation for public health
and social security. The government has already, in effect, halted the
privatisation of the state-controlled electricity company, Power
Public Corporation, by taking back some of the workers who had
been laid off because of the externally imposed cuts on employment.
We must admit that we are being overly optimistic, for how can
a single, small, bankrupt peripheral economy of the eurozone
stand up to the might of Berlin, Frankfurt and Brussels? We do,
however, expect that the Syriza-led governments bargaining stance
will, at the least, make way for a radical restructuring of the Greek
public debt, and with this, a gradual revival of the economy, a reduction in the unemployment rate, and an improvement in living
standards. In the victory celebrations of Syriza, besides the return
of optimism and national pride in the air at Syntagma, the central
square in Athens, other left, anti-austerity parties from across
Europe were present, especially Spains Podemos, as also the ones
from Italy and Portugal. If, like Syriza, Podemos succeeds in Spain,
then together they can help forge an alliance of the peripheral
countries of the eurozone, indeed, even raise fundamental questions regarding the European Unions flawed financial architecture
and the absence of a surplus recycling mechanism in the eurozone,
thereby getting to the roots of the calamity in Greece.
The current crop of Lilliputian political bosses on both sides
of the Atlantic refuse to read the writing on the wall in the
results of the recent Grecian elections that we began with, while
Syriza triumphed, the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party left its
mark as well, coming third overall with 6% of the vote. Another
combination dose of austerity and structural reform in the
midst of a collapse of living standards, and the mass discontent
might find solace in the lap of Golden Dawn. Surely, Berlin,
Frankfurt and Brussels will have to then share the responsibility
for failing to avert such a denouement.