Crítica a Tsipras. La sombra del coletas es alargada

En el FT, Aristides Hatzis le dedica estas palabras a su primer ministro Tsipras. Es exactamente lo que pensaba. Veo la sombra del "Coletas" alargarse haga ro para tanta sinrazón y prepotencia como para llevar a su pueblo a la ruina... Buen análisis de los dos resultados posibles del referéndum.

Whatever the outcome, the result will most likely be deadlock. According to the Greek government, a No vote will pressure the EU, ECB and IMF to compromise. I highly doubt it. Any result will only bind the Greek government.

A Yes vote will be a major defeat for Alexis Tsipras, the prime minister. He will have to resign and demand elections or a coalition government.

Which leads to the question: What were they thinking? Why did the Greek government choose a path that clearly leads to a quagmire?

The simple answer is the fear of political cost. They behaved opportunistically and myopically in order to satisfy their electoral base and protect their favourite vested interests.

However it is obvious that this move can have detrimental effects for the very people they try to protect — and it can also lead to the downfall of the Syriza government. Can’t they see it?

It is difficult to tell. This is not a typical leftist party. It is a coalition of radicals, Maoists, former Stalinists and populists.

Their gut feelings are anti-European and anti-western. They feel more at home with their comrades in Caracas than in Brussels. They are thinking and deciding collectively, with a psychology which is a mix of delusion and fanaticism.

Mr Tsipras is himself a product of this environment. He was raised and socialised in a climate of antiquated dogmatism, with no access to the real world.

He learnt how to be a party apparatchik, nothing more. He managed bitterly to disillusion the few of us who believed that he was capable of outgrowing his party, maturing enough to accept political cost and behaving rationally.

His irrational decision to call for the referendum at the weekend was also the result of the short-sightedness of the EU and the other creditors.

Greece’s European partners pushed him over the edge by behaving dismissively and by insisting on a continuation of a failing austerity recipe with unreasonable tax hikes and unfair spending cuts.

This led to a knee-jerk reaction by the Greek people. The government is now trying to exploit the underdog culture, the nationalistic sentiment, the ignorance of the average voter.

The referendum idea was supported by Syriza as well as its populist ultra-right-wing government partners and the neo-nazis.

In a previous opinion piece in the Financial Times I argued that Greece was in danger of becoming like the Weimar Republic because it had so many extremists from left and right inside the parliament. However, instead of a conflict between them, the extremists formed a coalition.

This rogue coalition has to fight against pro-Europe citizens, conservatives, liberals and socialists. Greece’s history informs us that nothing good comes out when there is such a great schism in society.