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Tsipras looks likely to do what he said he would not do
by Ian Talley,
2015-07-02 14:34:44.0
ALEXIS Tsipras may be about to fulfil the very vision he said he would not.
In 2013, Mr Tsipras — then a contender to be Greece’s next prime minister — sought to reassure eurozone creditors, the US and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) he would not lead the country out of the eurozone.
Two years later, Mr Tsipras’s six-month tenure as prime minister has put Greece teetering on the edge of a financial maelstrom and pushed it to the brink of a eurozone exit.
The country has become the first advanced economy to default to the IMF. Athens has failed to win new bail-out cash from its eurozone creditors, and has been forced to institute financial martial law after the European Central Bank (ECB) set limits on the amount of emergency financing Greek banks could receive.
Here is a flashback to a 2013 interview with Mr Tsipras:
Greece’s Tsipras Seeks to Reassure US, Softens Radical Image
By Ian Talley and Philip Pangalos
January 25, 2013
A contender for Greek prime minister who has advocated a debt default struck a softer tone this week, saying during a US trip that he was not seeking to harm the eurozone.
"Our party is not out to destroy Europe," said Tsipras, known as a firebrand leftist, former Communist and current member of the Syriza party, whose name in Greek is an acronym for the Coalition of the Radical Left.
"We want to show that we have no horns on our head."
Mr Tsipras fuelled fears that Greece could cripple the monetary union last year by suggesting his country should default on its obligations. He rejects the joint European-International Monetary Fund (IMF) bail-out of Greece as a failed exercise that risks "a social explosion with incalculable consequences".
Rather than advocating for a default, Mr Tsipras now says he wants the US and the IMF to push for a major write-down of Greek government debt held by euro area members before the German elections this fall.
He also wants a temporary moratorium on bond payments. Such a debt restructuring, Mr Tsipras said, would actually allow the country to get back on its economic feet without suffocating growth.
That is the message he has delivered to top US and IMF officials, including the fund’s number two, David Lipton, and to senior staff at the White House, State Department and Treasury Department.
IMF, Treasury and State officials acknowledged the meetings had occurred, but declined to comment further.
"Those who engage in scare-mongering will tell you that our party will come to power, rip up our agreements with the European Union and the IMF, take our country out of the eurozone," Mr Tsipras said in a speech on Tuesday at the Brookings Institution.
"My party, Syriza, doesn’t want any of these things," he said.
Although the European Central Bank has shored up the eurozone, Greece still could be a catalyst that causes a regional conflagration.
A default, many economists say, could cause irrevocable damage to the eurozone.
But Syriza has recently slipped in the polls as the governing coalition has capitalised on the fear the party may be too radical. To help build legitimacy, Mr Tsipras appears to be moving Syriza more toward the centre of the political spectrum.
"This trip shows the ongoing evolution of his political profile towards more of a social democrat," said Domenico Lombardi, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and former representative for Italy to the IMF’s executive board.
Mr Lombardi says Mr Tsipras’s US tour highlights Syriza’s shift to a more balanced, politically mature position that could garner further backing in Greece and is more palatable overseas.
The current three-party coalition government is set to remain in power until 2016 unless the government collapses again.
Although the coalition still holds a comfortable majority in parliament, if recent defections accelerate, it could potentially catapult Mr Tsipras into power in the near future.
Syriza’s rise is in large part due to public disillusionment with the main parties — centre-left Pasok and centre-right New Democracy — which led in the past three decades.
Greece is in its sixth year of recession. The country’s unemployment rate is the highest in Europe, with youth unemployment at a staggering 56%.
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Alexis Tsipras, Greece's prime minister, stands and speaks to lawmakers inside the Greek parliament in Athens. Picture: KOSTAS TSIRONIS/BLOOMBERG
ALEXIS Tsipras may be about to fulfil the very vision he said he would not.
In 2013, Mr Tsipras — then a contender to be Greece’s next prime minister — sought to reassure eurozone creditors, the US and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) he would not lead the country out of the eurozone.
Two years later, Mr Tsipras’s six-month tenure as prime minister has put Greece teetering on the edge of a financial maelstrom and pushed it to the brink of a eurozone exit.
The country has become the first advanced economy to default to the IMF. Athens has failed to win new bail-out cash from its eurozone creditors, and has been forced to institute financial martial law after the European Central Bank (ECB) set limits on the amount of emergency financing Greek banks could receive.
Here is a flashback to a 2013 interview with Mr Tsipras:
Greece’s Tsipras Seeks to Reassure US, Softens Radical Image
By Ian Talley and Philip Pangalos
January 25, 2013
A contender for Greek prime minister who has advocated a debt default struck a softer tone this week, saying during a US trip that he was not seeking to harm the eurozone.
"Our party is not out to destroy Europe," said Tsipras, known as a firebrand leftist, former Communist and current member of the Syriza party, whose name in Greek is an acronym for the Coalition of the Radical Left.
"We want to show that we have no horns on our head."
Mr Tsipras fuelled fears that Greece could cripple the monetary union last year by suggesting his country should default on its obligations. He rejects the joint European-International Monetary Fund (IMF) bail-out of Greece as a failed exercise that risks "a social explosion with incalculable consequences".
Rather than advocating for a default, Mr Tsipras now says he wants the US and the IMF to push for a major write-down of Greek government debt held by euro area members before the German elections this fall.
He also wants a temporary moratorium on bond payments. Such a debt restructuring, Mr Tsipras said, would actually allow the country to get back on its economic feet without suffocating growth.
That is the message he has delivered to top US and IMF officials, including the fund’s number two, David Lipton, and to senior staff at the White House, State Department and Treasury Department.
IMF, Treasury and State officials acknowledged the meetings had occurred, but declined to comment further.
"Those who engage in scare-mongering will tell you that our party will come to power, rip up our agreements with the European Union and the IMF, take our country out of the eurozone," Mr Tsipras said in a speech on Tuesday at the Brookings Institution.
"My party, Syriza, doesn’t want any of these things," he said.
Although the European Central Bank has shored up the eurozone, Greece still could be a catalyst that causes a regional conflagration.
A default, many economists say, could cause irrevocable damage to the eurozone.
But Syriza has recently slipped in the polls as the governing coalition has capitalised on the fear the party may be too radical. To help build legitimacy, Mr Tsipras appears to be moving Syriza more toward the centre of the political spectrum.
"This trip shows the ongoing evolution of his political profile towards more of a social democrat," said Domenico Lombardi, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and former representative for Italy to the IMF’s executive board.
Mr Lombardi says Mr Tsipras’s US tour highlights Syriza’s shift to a more balanced, politically mature position that could garner further backing in Greece and is more palatable overseas.
The current three-party coalition government is set to remain in power until 2016 unless the government collapses again.
Although the coalition still holds a comfortable majority in parliament, if recent defections accelerate, it could potentially catapult Mr Tsipras into power in the near future.
Syriza’s rise is in large part due to public disillusionment with the main parties — centre-left Pasok and centre-right New Democracy — which led in the past three decades.
Greece is in its sixth year of recession. The country’s unemployment rate is the highest in Europe, with youth unemployment at a staggering 56%.
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