Despite the expectations of progress and stability that some had cultivated, the outgoing 2015 has turned out to be absolutely turbulent. The election campaign in January was agonizing and dominated by fears about the country’s future and prospects.
As it turned out in practice, these fears were not baseless. The joy and celebration that followed the election of Mr. Tsipras died down and gave way to waves of agony and concern. The new government found itself to be negotiating politically, without understanding the slew of financial limitations and critical nature of the circumstances.
The Greek people experienced major insecurity, all trust was lot and the country found itself on the brink of catastrophe numerous times. It took many months of clashing the country’s partners for the leaders in Athens to realized that Brussels is acting based on agreed upon principles and regulations. That is how we came to the capital controls and the pointless referendum in the summer, the result of which the Prime Minister himself was forced to annul in practice only a few days later, when he was directly faced with the threat of a Grexit – the country’s expulsion from the euro zone – at the summit.
Within a climate of absolute insecurity, major political developments followed; the governing party split up, the opposition was jumbled, the agreement with Brussels was hastily signed and the country – disorganized, weary and helpless – was headed for its third election within in a year.
After his re-election Mr. Tsipras was forced into a corrosive struggle of supporting a slew of measures that he agreed to in exchange for additional support and the third bailout. At the same time he had to face the serious European issue of the refugee influx, which peaked after the bloody terrorist attacks in Paris.
Greece is under a lot of pressure at present. The country’s partners demand the implementation of what has been agreed upon in the economy, as well as preventing undesirable refugees from landing on European soil. These two targets are mostly incompatible, especially for a country that is constantly loosing assets and quickly “wasting” its political strength.
In any case, Greece did not move forward in 2015.
The economy has marginally moved on; the financial and other types of restrictions remain in place; business continue to struggle on their own; the State is not in the position to do anything unemployment affects a quarter of the population and threatens many more; the pension system is about to collapse and there is more than enough insecurity. The government is divisive rather than unifying, insisting upon a witch hunt to remain in power, without any sense of production or creation.
That is also the worst of all, the most disheartening and worrying aspect about the country’s path.
We have only counted sacrifices and losses for about a year now. Without creation and new production, nothing can happen.
So long as there is no stability or opportunities for production, the country will only lose.
That is the bitter truth. Everything else is merely propaganda.
Antonis Karakousis
Originally published in the Christmas print edition
