The governments during the prolonged financial crisis have a common fate. The Prime Ministers also have a common fate. Especially those who ignored the major impact of what was essentially a bankruptcy in 2009 when the country was excluded from the markets and was later confirmed when the country resorted to the bailouts from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

Mr. Tsipras is one of them. He underestimated the financial aspect of the crisis and wrongly believed that a political change was all that was needed to address the major crisis and of course he promised everything to everyone to assume power.

Based on such a wrong impression, he and his party made claims that were not based on the real world – in fact they were entirely incompatible with the terms and principles of the international and European financial systems, of which our country is a part of, for better or for worse.

Last year’ six-month adventure of the first Tsipras-led government made this perfectly clear. Guided by these utopian approaches, the country was on the brink of catastrophe, was in danger of being expelled from Europe and ended up being bound by a far worse agreement.

Unfortunately, despite the mishap, he insisted upon his mistake. Last autumn, rather than push forward with the implementation of the agreement, he chose to delay and turn to the political negotiation. He hoped that by gaining some time, the conditions and alliances in Europe would change so that he could avoid part of the bankruptcy and maintain the expectations of his voters.

Reality turned out to be rather harsh for Mr. Tsipras. The political circumstances did indeed change, but for the worse for him and our country. Europe became tougher, more conservative and the International Monetary Fund became entirely inflexible.

The Prime Minister is absolutely trapped at present. He is called to adopt even harder measures and to legislate automatic wage and pension cuts if there are deviations from fiscal targets, which are in contradiction to his first speeches and the many promises he made indiscriminately to rise to power.

Of course he has no options. He is aware that elections are not a solution, neither for the country nor himself. He has one path ahead of him: that of the agreement and its consequences.

The Prime Minister cannot avoid the fate of his predecessors. He too will face the music of the crisis, whatever that entails. Of course he will pay for the unfulfilled promises he made and extensive expectations that he cultivated.

Therefore, the irreverent have a common fate.

Antonis Karakousis

Originally published in the Saturday print edition