Published: Progress

As Westminster does its best to tear itself apart, the Greek parliament has been playing out its own internal drama – between two very strange bedfellows. The most paradoxical coalition in the European Union has finally come to an end: the far-right Independent Hellenes – or ANEL – under the leadership of Panos Kammenos, walked out of their coalition with the radical left party Syriza, led by prime minister Alexis Tsipras. While managing to weaken the government, enough ANEL members of parliament have remained to keep the shaky coalition standing.

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Ο πρωθυπουργός παρουσιάζει τη λύση της συνεργασίας με τον Πάνο Καμμένο ως τη στιγμή της απελευθέρωσης μίας ολόκληρης παράταξης από τα δεσμά ενός ακροδεξιού. Ο αρχηγός των ΑΝΕΛ (για κάποιον λόγο μόνον αυτός, αφού οι βουλευτές των Ανεξάρτητων Ελλήνων παραμένουν στον συνασπισμό) ντρόπιαζε τους οπαδούς του ΣΥΡΙΖΑ, και εμπόδιζε την ηγεσία του κόμματος να συνεργαστεί με τους πραγματικούς ιδεολογικούς συγγενείς της. 

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Published: Progress

It is very often argued that the European Union and the International Monetary Fund got it wrong with the Greek crisis. They overestimated the Greek economy’s resilience and set unrealistic fiscal targets which resulted to excessive and pointless austerity. The wrong economic recipe was accompanied by a series of fatal political mistakes. The failure to foresee the rise of anti-establishment populists to power is top of the list.

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