| Wall Street Journal | - |
ATHENS—Greece's
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is attempting a spectacular U-turn,
signing up to everything that Greeks voted “no” to in Sunday's
referendum at his behest.
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ENLARGE
Greek Prime minister
Alexis Tsipras attends his party's parliamentary group meeting at the
Greek parliament in Athens on Friday.
Photo:
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Whether that reversal works out well for him politically depends on whether he can limit revolt inside his party in parliament.
His gamble to hold a referendum on creditors’ bailout demands did end up uniting Greece’s political parties behind a new overture to creditors, even as it surprised and enraged Europe and led to stifling capital controls in Greece. And his successful campaign for a landslide “no” vote boosted his popularity and his status as Greece’s dominant political figure.
Paradoxically, that win gave Mr. Tsipras more authority to propose heavy austerity measures needed to stave off national bankruptcy, which previously he couldn’t get his party to swallow.
Even if Greece’s creditors—the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund—press Mr. Tsipras for additional measures, his hand has been strengthened against the antiausterity hard-liners in his left-wing Syriza party.
‘We cannot handle a ‘Grexit’ right now.’
Decisive votes on implementing any new bailout program still lie ahead, however.
“He is the undisputed leader in the party but it remains to be seen whether in the longer term there will be any challenge from the radical left,” said George Pagoulatos, professor of European politics and economy at the Athens University of Economics and Business. “He can’t be threatened right now.”
Mr. Tsipras personally threw his weight behind the “no” vote that over 61% of Greeks backed. The referendum also claimed a major political scalp: that of former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, one of the highest-profile figures supporting a “yes” vote to creditors’ terms, who on Sunday resigned as leader of the conservative New Democracy party.
Part of the risk Mr. Tsipras took in holding the referendum was that much of Europe saw it as a vote on whether Greece would leave the eurozone. After the “no” vote, calls for Greece’s exit from the single currency grew louder in Berlin and other European capitals.
With Greek banks shut and the economy in free fall, Mr. Tsipras on Monday called a meeting of the country’s party leaders to discuss a way for Greece to move ahead.
After a seven-hour meeting, the leaders agreed a common statement that, while short on policy substance, showed a rare unity among Greece’s fractious parties.
“The referendum and the likelihood of Grexit helped get everyone to sit at the same table, and this is what boosted Mr. Tsipras,” said Athanassios Platias, director of graduate studies at the Department of International and European Studies at the University of Piraeus.
“We saw this week a redistribution of political powers, with Mr. Samaras stepping down,” added Mr. Platias.
Faced with a fresh deadline from creditors to put together a credible catalog of economic overhauls by Friday morning, Mr. Tsipras and his team drew up new proposals, including changes to Greece’s value-added tax system and a remake of pensions—measures that went further than Syriza could stomach previously.
As a first litmus test, Syriza on Friday called a meeting of parliamentary members to debate the reforms. The majority of lawmakers appeared to be in line with their leader. Panos Lafazanis, who heads Syriza’s hard-line left faction, was among the few to express strong disagreement with the proposal, saying it wasn’t in line with the party’s electoral program. It isn’t clear yet how Mr. Lafazanis and his acolytes will vote.
But other comments from party lawmakers indicate that even most hard-line members, representing about a third of Syriza members of parliament, are staying on board, at least for now, and acknowledging that Greece has no Plan B.
“We cannot handle a ‘Grexit’ right now, but we must prepare for that because we will have to deal with it in the future,” Costas Lapavitsas, a hard-line member of parliament, said during a parliamentary committee meeting, according to government officials.
In the streets of Athens, reactions have been mixed at the news that Mr. Tsipras is yielding to creditors’ demands. An antiausterity rally has been organized for Friday afternoon in central Athens.
“Why is he signing up now? Why didn’t he do this a few months ago? It would have saved the country a lot of problems,” said Chrysa Drimouli, a 31-year-old architect. “Someone has to take responsibility for these delays that destroyed the country.”
Others were disappointed that he had backed down, putting the leftist leader on par with others who signed bailout agreements in the last five years and have since seen their popularity plummet.
“It is the same story every time. Previously it was [socialists] Pasok and New Democracy and now it is Mr. Tsipras. I would have preferred it if he stuck to his guns,” said Theodoros Zounelis, a medical sales representative. “Nothing ever changes in this country.”
