What occurred at the informal Eurogroup session and the EU Summit was neither simple, nor usual.
The new Greek government stood up for itself, developed its arguments, directly disputed the rescue model imposed by partners and creditors and claims the right to define, within EU fiscal framework, the nature of the economic policy that is being implemented in our country.
Ultimately, despite the aphorisms, the threats and the anathema, they were forced to listen and come to an agreement.
At present there is a general political agreement that gives the right to Greece to claim the revision of the implemented economic policy even on a technical level, to replace antisocial measures with others, to cover the basic needs of the humanitarian crisis and to strive for the rebooting of the economy.
The ongoing negotiation is obviously not easy. It is full of thorns and problems.
Our partners, citing the risk of a public finances derailment, pressure for the implementation of most of the bailout agreement measures, insist upon the previous commitments, set priorities, demand time tables of goals and deadlines for tax evasions and in general are trying to bind the government as much as possible.
Additionally, they want a full description of the new monitoring mechanism which will oversee the execution of the new agreement and clearly will not discuss a debt settlement at present, they postpone it for the fall, associating it with the progress which will have been achieved by then. However, despite the difficulties and hurdles, it is rather likely that an agreement will take place on a technical level as well, with Greece trying another path, another choice, beyond what is the dominant choice in European finances.
The Tsipras government essentially paved a path that up to now was blocked off in the Old Continent and which allowed for the creation of a different political pole.
The question that is now being asked is whether he can last.
Whether Tsipras and those following him have a strong ideological and political foundation or whether they emerged due to the great financial crisis and after the first gust of wind in the economy, they will be scattered and blown away, just as suddenly as they first appeared and developed…
In any case, we must recognize that the longstanding political tradition in Europe justifies the existence of a pole of redistribution and the social state, which has paradoxically been completely absent for almost three decades.
And it is surprising how after Willy Brandt European social democracy surrendered to neoliberalism almost without a fight, without any resistance.
This is the centuries-old political tradition abandoned by the social democrats, which Tsipras, the Podemos and the other smaller emergent groups in Europe are bringing back. That is why the neoliberal political and economic elite cannot easily exclude them from the governance of the Old Continent.
Antonis Karakousis
Originally published in the Sunday print edition
