Tsipras: Chronicles of a Traitor

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Alexis Tsipras, the alleged leader of Syriza, who came to power with the sole mission of returning Greece to the Greeks, turned out to be a false prophet, a hoax, a distraction, a traitor. Written by Luis R. Miranda and Stephen J. Lendman It is true that Greece got into trouble way before Alexis Tsipras became the leader of Syriza. It all started after Greece entered the EU via the falsification of data and documents by Goldman Sachs. But every single politician in Greece knew that their country was in no condition to become part of the EU. Furthermore, all political parties in Greece knew that the country was in dire need to change and that such change included renouncing the illegal debt, the loans that were given to Greece even though everyone knew the country could not pay them back. Just when everyone thought Greece had lost its way forever, a new leader riding on the horse of hope and change loomed on the horizon. He promised to reject the ways of the Troika, the illegal debt and above all, to return Greece to the Greeks. He told the disenfranchised that austerity would soon be over, that pensions would not be touched and that his government would invest in rescuing those who had lost their jobs and livelihoods. While Marie Le Penn and Nigel Farage rose in the polls in France and Britain, Alexis Tsipras began to ride the wave of popularity in Greece due to its populist rhetoric. But the honey moon lasted very little. Tsipras Caves in before the Troika Not too long after he was elected, Tsipras and his government issued a decree requiring all public entities and local councils to surrender all their reserves to the Greek Central Bank. This move, Tsipras explained, was a response to the lack of funds in government coffers. Given the urgent need for funding, the Executive, in its inability to generate cash, issued an order to allow the government to fund pensions and salaries. “With this decree, the government hopes to meet needs of the State which are worth 3 billion euros in the next 15 days,” said the Executive. The rule must still be approved by Parliament. As early as April 2015, experts were already warning about a Greek default. “The default seems inevitable. We believe that the Greek government will come to some agreement with its creditors to unlock the 7.2 billion that is outstanding. We do not recommend having Greek debt at this juncture because it doesn’t seem that volatility will be reduced in the short term,” said Eirini Tsekeridou, fixed income analyst at Julius Baer. Two months later, the unthinkable happened. The man who promised to end austerity caved in to the demands of the Troika. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, offered new concessions to creditors in pensions and increasing VAT. These two concessions were partial steps to achieve an agreement that would unblock the next financial rescue of the banks and avoid default. The Government of Syriza accepted delaying the retirement age to 67 years and penalizing early retirement. It also increased social contributions, as contained in a proposal submitted to the Troika. In regards to the VAT, Greece undertook the task of applying such a tax to most products at the general rate of 23%. The reduced rate of 13% would be limited only to energy, basic food and hotels, while there would be a reduced rate of 6% for medical supplies and books. Tsipras also accepted the most controversial measure of all: gradually eliminating allowances for pensioners, a measure that will start in 2018, and replace it for pensions in 2020, as well as increase from 4% to 5% the contributions of pensioners to the health system. Tsipras accepted the fiscal targets set by creditors: 1% of primary surplus, excluding interests, in 2015, 2% next year, 3% in 2017 and 3.5% in 2018, as proposed in the 11 pages document send to Brussels by his administration. The counter offer that never happened By the end of June, the Greek people began to realize that it was all a dream. Alexis Tsipras began his plan to deceive the Greeks who had given him the mandate to end austerity. He called for a referendum so people could vote on the latest proposal issued by Greece’s creditors while he was actually considering that very same proposal as a way to gain credibility with the Troika. Tsipras publicly asked the Greek people to decide what they wanted to do, but the massive rejection of the Troika’s proposal in the referendum was not enough for Tsipras to say to to the bankers. The conditions contained in the proposal made by the Troika were clear. If accepted, Greece would choose to live forever in debt and to continue paying interests on the debt, without ever being able to pay it off. The opposition of the Greek people to more austerity and more debt only found a voice with Greece’s Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis, who rejected those options from the beginning and until the day he was asked to leave his position. Tsipras betrays the Greek People Nothing less than the complete refusal of the illegal debt would have been a defeat for Greece, yet, the ‘strong man’ who was elected because he promised not to bend to the Troika did just that and, once again, delivered Greece into the […]

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