The message from
Sunday’s elections in Greece was unambiguous: The Greeks cannot and will not
continue to abide by the austerity regime that has brought their economy to its
knees. It was a message the Germans and other Europeans who continue to insist
that Greece pay off its mountainous debt, no matter what the damage, must hear.
Persisting on their dogmatic course is not only wrong for Greece but dangerous
for the entire European Union.
These goals are
fundamentally incompatible, but the new prime minister has signaled to
Europeans that he is ready to moderate his ambitions once in office. It is
essential that Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who is seen by Greeks as
the prime architect of the austerity program, and the “troika” of the European
Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which
manage the Greek bailout, demonstrate a similar readiness to ease the size and
conditions of Greece’s debt burden.
Some of the creditors
still seem to feel that a debt is a debt to be repaid in full, and that the
Greeks “deserve” punishment for their history of profligate spending and
habitual tax evasion. But shrinking an economy by a quarter and throwing more
than half the young people out of work — policies Mr. Tsipras has likened to
waterboarding — is not the way to enable a country to pay back its debts.
Greece needs some breathing room, not only to give Mr. Tsipras a chance to turn
the country around but also for the sake of the rest of Europe.
Greece may be
exceptional in the size of its debt burden, now about 177 percent of G.D.P.,
and its systemic problems run deep. But Greeks are not unique in their feelings
of alienation and anger over the economic crisis that spread to many of the
poorer countries of the European Union, and Syriza is hardly the most radical
of the fringe parties that have arisen across Europe in reaction to the crisis.
If Greece is pushed to the limit and compelled to default on its debt payments,
and even to abandon the euro, the economic repercussions would spread through
all Europe. Politically, a “Grexit” — Greek exit from the euro — would shatter
the assumption that there is no retreat from the euro and further destabilize
Europe. And it would certainly add fuel to anti-European Union sentiments that
have propelled the growth of far-right parties.
Of course, Mr. Tsipras
must use his popular mandate to push through the fundamental domestic reforms
that his predecessor, Antonis Samaras, had begun. The moneyed elites’ aversion
to paying taxes must be brought to an end, along with the corruption, nepotism
and cronyism in government. Opposing austerity does not mean abandoning reform
as a group of prominent economists wrote recently in The Financial Times.
There is not a lot of
time, though. Greece’s current bailout program expires on Feb. 28. European Union
leaders — Mr. Tsipras among them — are scheduled to gather in Brussels on Feb.
12. An announcement there of an extension of the program for several months
would be a good signal that the Europeans have heard the cry of the Greeks and
are prepared to be more sensible.
(Πηγή: nytimes.com)
