After victory of Nea Dimokratia by Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who won the double Syriza's votes, the left-wing party led by the former prime minister Alexis Tsipras, we expect headlines lamenting the advance of the right in Europe. Someone even hints at a Giorgia Melon effecti, who has had to change her mind since, in 2015, she wrote "Tsipras, in Greece, is light years away from us, but the result of the elections in Greece tells the failure of the Troika policies and the desire for freedom that comes from the peoples of Europe. We, in Italy, are working to build a credible response to that need and our guiding star is the national interest. Because the answer is not the international of peoples, but the rediscovery of homelands”.
Greece: Tsipras' years in power
A few years later, when there was talk of Mes (a question still open despite the new course of FdI), Meloni predicted that, by adhering to the treaty, Italy risked ''end up like Greece''. We know the story. The left coalition led by Tsipras won the elections in January 2015 and faced a dramatic situation. Greece had lost a quarter of its GDP, more than one third of the population was at risk of poverty or social exclusion, while unemployment had reached almost 22%. They were necessary stringent recovery measures of public finance, but Tsipras promised that he would follow another line, essentially – as they said at the time – against austerity. He sent the finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, a colorful economist, to negotiate at the European headquarters who advised him to reject the aid package, regardless of what the consequences were.
The member states of the Union presented a united front and yielded to almost none of the demands of the Greek delegation. At that time, Tsipras called a referendum in which he asked the Greek people whether or not the government should accept the harsh conditions that had been imposed on it, arousing the scandal and concern of the European partners. The Nos won, but Tsipras did not do what the voters had asked of him and what the hardliners of his party advised. He went back to negotiating with the European leaders and accepted a package essentially identical to the one that had previously been proposed to him.
The "betrayal" of Tsipras and the right in power
In the summer of 2015, the so-called took place Tsipras' "betrayal". Greece was subjected to vigorous consolidation action even though it was spared the humiliation of the Troika. As the darling of vast sectors of the European left, the leader of Syriza was abandoned like a cat on a ring road, despite his victory in the early elections.
In the next ones the right returned to power who had the opportunity to make use of the ''dirty work'' set up by Tsipras.
Commenting on the result of Sunday's elections there is still someone who accuses the defeat of the left at the ''betrayal'' of 2015. It is somewhat the same analysis of the Italian Democratic Party which has attributed its electoral difficulties to its government action in the last ten years.
As far as Greece is concerned, the caricature of a still prevails in the debate Country subjugated by neoliberalism, humiliated in workers' rights, which has missed the opportunity to indicate that another way is possible.
But nobody looks at the data. In the vulgate of talk shows, Greece retains the stigmata or, if you like, the scars (as you entitled '' Tomorrow '') of austerity. Yet that country from 2010 to 2015 danced on the edge of the abyss, the Greeks were allowed to withdraw 60 euros per day and credit cards were cancelled. Government bonds were considered rubbish, useful at most for wallpapering domestic walls.
Instead, in 2021, after the pandemic, Greece grew by 8,4%; the following year by 5,9%. Unemployment is at 10%. A small primary balance was recorded that same year. The public debt, already exploded to 200% in 2020, it fell to the lowest level since 2012, thanks also to inflation. The exports they have increased by 90% since 2010 compared to an average of 42% in the Eurozone. The banks they are in good health and bad debts have gone from 50% in 2016 to 7%. Foreign capital and capital that fled abroad has returned; and tourism is recovering. Are they indicators of a country that has suffered? It was better when it was worse why was there someone pointing to non-existent shortcuts? Then they say one jumps to the right!
