Forty-one years after the restoration of democracy in Greece, 2015 saw the biggest political change in the history of the Hellenic Republic. It was also the year that Greece came closer than ever to be forced out of the Eurozone.
On January 25, 2015 the majority of Greek people gave their vote to the first leftist government ever, making 2015 the year of Alexis Tsipras. Alexis Tsipras, leader of the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), won the elections on the promise that he will get Greece out of the painful bailout program and negotiate a big haircut with lenders. At the same time he had promised Greek people that he would put an end to corruption, clientelism, nepotism, tax evasion while at the same time he would put en end to the “humanitarian crisis,” as he had called it.
SYRIZA, a party composed of communists, former PASOK members, socialists, and anarchists, had to cooperate with the hard rightists Independent Greeks (ANEL) to form a coalition with 162 seats in the 300-strong parliament.
On February 20, Tsipras and flamboyant Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis agreed with the “troika” of Greece’s creditors – the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund – to extend the existing bailout program by four months, until the end of June. The day was celebrated as a victory, as a first step to kick out the hated troika, as Tsipras had promised to do in his campaign. In reality, it was just an extension of the program. Intense negotiations started between Greece and creditors as to how Greece would get out of the economic crisis and repay its huge sovereign debt.
Greece’s finance minister extraordinaire became a popular icon with his clever comments and his “creative ambiguity.” His defiant stance made him a frequent visitor to television channels and print and electronic media kept repeating his quotes.
On April 8, Tsipras and a delegation of energy and economy ministers visited Moscow and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The two leaders signed an agreement regarding the cultural ties between the two countries, as 2016 is Greece-Russia year. The visit was presented to the Greek people as a prelude to receiving financial aid from Russia and the signing of energy deals between the two countries. None of that was true. In fact, the visit infuriated Europe and the U.S.A. as Tsipras seemed to play the “divide and conquer” game.
In June, as the end of the extension was approaching, state funds started running dry, with the government asking all public entities to “lend” the state their remaining reserves. Meanwhile, Greek banks were seeing that cash outflows since the beginning of the year were approaching 35 billion euros. The bank runs that had started as soon as elections were announced in December 2014, culminated as the word “Grexit” was repeated more and more on a daily basis by mass media, politicians lips and creditors.
On June 28, the Greek government enforced capital controls for the first time ever. Greeks could only withdraw a maximum of 60 euros per day, while banks were closed and remained so for over three weeks. The economy came close to collapsing in the midst a busy tourist season.
As the end of the bailout program extension brought Greece to the brink of bankruptcy, the country defaulted its IMF payment at the end of June. Tsipras decided to call a referendum, asking Greek people whether they choose to accept the lenders’ proposal or not. The government supported the “no” to the program, implying Greece’s exit from the Eurozone. Pro-Europe political forces joined the “yes” camp. Greeks were divided once again.
The July 5 referendum results showed that 62 percent of Greeks said “no” to a new memorandum of understanding. With that in his baggage, Tsipras left for Brussels a week later for a final negotiation with lenders. After a marathon meeting that lasted 17 hours, in the early morning of July 13, Tsipras signed Greece’s third bailout memorandum full of austerity measures, much harsher than what creditors had originally proposed.
There was an uproar within SYRIZA with the party’s “left platform” rebelling against the prime minister’s decision to sign a memorandum when in fact his pre-election pledge was to put an end to memoranda. On August 14, the third bailout program came to parliament with one third of SYRIZA lawmakers voting against or abstaining. Pro-Europe opposition parties voted in favor of the agreement in order to keep Greece in the European fold. Tsipras decided to resign and call early elections on August 20. On August 27, Supreme Court judge Vassiliki Thanou was sworn in interim prime minister. She was the first female prime minister in Greek history.
SYRIZA’s left platform led by Panagiotis Lafazanis and controversial former house speaker Zoe Konstantopoulou formed a new party called Popular Unity. New Democracy‘s Antonis Samaras, the main opposition leader, left his post, with Vangelis Meimarakis taking over.
The September 20 elections saw the trimmed-down SYRIZA winning with 36.5 percent of the vote. Despite the fact that Tsipras had made a 180-degree turn and signed a painful bailout agreement, Greek people gave him their vote of confidence. Again, he formed a coalition with ANEL, this time with 155 seats in parliament.
Tsipras had the hard task of implementing the harsh austerity reforms he so vehemently opposed less than a year ago. The austerity of the measures agreed on were the harshest as crisis-stricken Greeks are called to pay billions in extra taxes, people with outstanding mortgages are at risk of losing their homes, pensions are cut substantially, farmers have to pay new, high taxes and so on.
In addition to the economic crisis, during the summer hundreds of thousands of refugees from war-torn Syria and Iraq and economic migrants from the Middle East and North Africa started flooding the Greek islands near the Turkish coast. The islands of Lesbos, Kos, Chios, Leros, Samos and others were practically occupied – and some still are – by thousands of migrants on their way to richer northern and central Europe.
The Greek government proved inadequate to tackle the problem, while at the same time the European Union’s substantially delayed response made the situation worse. “Hot spots” were established on the Greek islands manned mainly by staff from the UNHCR and the European Commission. It is estimated that more than 700,000 refugees and migrants crossed Greek waters on their way to Europe.
Yet, a serious problem appeared in November as about 3,000 illegal migrants were left stranded on the border between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Certain European countries accused Greece of failing to register migrants, even bringing the issue of having Greece out of the Schengen Agreement. Finally Athens agreed to receive help from Frontex to protect its borders.
The first months of the second SYRIZA-ANEL term showed that the promises of battling corruption and fighting tax evasion were empty. On the contrary, two key SYRIZA ministers failed to declare substantial incomes, while the progress of reforms is very slow. The talks about easing the Greek debt that were scheduled for October never took place because they are tied to the implementation of the reforms.The Greek government pushed back for January the “thorny” insurance fund reforms, farmers taxation and settlement of bad loans.
The main opposition party, marred by internal problems, could not take advantage of the government shortcomings. The election for New Democracy leader on November 22 turned out to be a fiasco as it was cancelled due to technical problems. When the ballot was repeated on December 20, Vangelis Meimarakis came first but he will have to battle it out with Kyriakos Mitsotakis on January 10, 2016.
The political situation in 2015 leaves Greeks pessimistic for the future of the economy and the country in general. An opinion poll published on December 18 shows that 84.5 percent of Greeks are disappointed by the government.
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