Another Greek tragedy in the cradle of democracy

By JORGE ELÍAS

@JorgeEliasInter

The experience of Alexis Tsipras failed. Not only for the return of the conservatives to the Greek government, but also for the trickery of citizenship before a speech of your mythological. The pronounced on the island of Ithaca, in which the leader of the left coalition SYRIZA badumed the role of the king mesenio Ulysses.

It was in 2015. Tsipras resigned from his position as prime minister and called for early elections with the certainty that he would revalidate his mandate. He did it. Now, after the bad results of the month of May in Europe, the result would be another. The odyssey of defeat.

Greek tragedy can be summed up in two acts: fewer babies and more emigrants. The shockwave of Europe, where radicals left and right could not cope with the Greens and Liberals, crowned the victory of conservative New Democracy party of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. A result that goes beyond Greece, where the typical confrontation between the two extremes has been blurred by a duel. That of the strains. Mitsotakis' father, Constantinos, was prime minister from 1990 to 1993. The pater familias, Eleftherios Venizelos, served seven times between 1910 and 1933.

"Greek tragedy can be summed up in two acts: fewer babies and more emigrants"

The lineage weighs against mistrust. That of an electorate that has seen the promise of redistributing wealth disappear. Tsipras ended up adopting orthodox policies that heal the macroeconomic crisis, but did not opt ​​for common welfare. The bad mood resulted in the absolute majority of Mitsotakis' party in Parliament, which had not happened since 2009. He had the support of the left, disillusioned with Tsipras. In a decade, Greece has suffered shocks and the threat of expulsion from the European Union, whose GDP contributes to 2%. A small contribution, but important at the time of Brexit.

In 2011, the Greeks were as scandalized as the Spaniards and other Europeans. They protested against a plan for cuts, privatizations and tax increases for five years. If it were not approved, Greece would not receive the fifth tranche of the loan agreed in 2010 with the troika (European Commission, European Central Bank and IMF) to remedy the default. The euro zone, in turn, was going to be forced to ease the panic on the declining debt markets of Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy. The impact would reach the financial system of the United States.

The arrival in Tsipras in 2015, after three years of conservatism, was a breath of fresh air. It was the first test of the new ultra-left in old Europe. In the three rescues of the economy, the black men of the troika intervened, more interested in balance sheets than in people.

On the road was the far right of Golden Dawn. Curiously, Mitsotakis offers the same thing as Tsipras: manage the adjustments. Greeks' per capita income rose from 21,800 euros in 2008 to 16,800 in 2017, according to Eurostat. This explains the democratic fatigue. A global phenomenon, like corruption. Another tragedy of Greece, cradle of democracy.