The omnibus bill with the first package of measures that was submitted in Parliament on Monday is the first in a series of painful reforms contained in the third bailout. It is the heavy price that Greek society is called to pay for the endless and totally inefficient negotiation of the first Tsipras government. The misleading promises given before the January elections collapsed under the weight of harsh reality which led us to the painful compromise of the new bailout.
Greece managed to remain in Europe and the euro, however the cost will be huge for a society that has been beset for the past five years from the consecutive tax burdens and cuts. One again we are paying for the weakness of the political system to establish a minimum consensus in order to carry out a series of reforms which could at least reduce the unbearable impact of tax measures and income reduction.
As an unavoidable consequence, the economy and society are forced to reduce incomes to cover deficits that were caused from the unreliability and inefficiency of the authorities. The worst of all though is that due to the complete lack of a national plant to manage the crisis, the government is turning to the usual recipe of taxes and reducing wages and pensions.
Long standing obsessions as well as an outdate statist understanding lead to this “easy” solution with a huge social and political cost, instead of implementing a radical plan to reform and rebuild the state. Privatization which could boost the economy are lingering for years, while tens or hundreds of useless public sector bodies remain, because some do not dare clash with the unions or party clients.
Once again the people are called to pay for these ills and inefficiency. Without, unfortunately, to hope that the government and political system as a whole, has the awareness that we must finally set aside the beliefs and ideological acrobatics, which lead us to constantly repeat the same mistakes.
TO VIMA
