Greece: ten years after the austerity row
In a referendum held on 5 July 2015, Greek voters overwhelmingly voted against the austerity measures imposed by the country's creditors. Just a few days later they were signed off nevertheless. Ten years on, commentators look back at the austerity policy and its consequences.
Little hope for the left
Protagon comments on the prospects of the Syriza party:
“If the left has any hope of playing a role again in Greece, it must somehow convince us that it has something very substantial and different to say about the period we have entered. ... International tensions, wars, a prodigious ecological crisis, the transition into a technological age of AI. ... If the left is the first to speak about this in a clear manner, it may have a chance to rekindle people's interest. Otherwise the image of a pathetic Teddy boy [former PM Alexis Tsipras] who declared that he would change the world, but as soon as he got the chance to say what he meant by that started begging the world to stay just how it was, will cling to them like a curse.”
The people were listened to
It was not all in vain, insists news website In:
“Did we lose the referendum? The answer is a resounding no! It paved the way for negotiations and, above all, broke the logic that governments should simply implement whatever the troika dictated. ... Ultimately it led to the withdrawal from the memoranda. ... And what really bothers all those today who insist on maligning an entire society and its decisions is not that the third memorandum took place. ... What bothers them is that Greece experienced days of real democracy. That Greece took to the streets to make demands. That in Europe, when the citizens said NO, their voices were heard.”
Time for Germans to learn from Greece
Jens Bastian, a leading political advisor to the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) writes:
“Today, thankfully, the words 'Greek crisis and 'Grexit' have disappeared in German narratives. Instead they have been replaced by considerations about what Germany can learn from Greece's experience during the past 10 years. It is a public debate that is emerging in Berlin among policy makers and business representatives when arguing about the structural reform agenda that Germany should be implementing without delay. A decade earlier, policy makers in Berlin lectured their Greek counterparts on what needed to be done to avoid default. Today, German policy circles are holding Greece up as an example of what Berlin's homework should look like.”