Left defeat in Greece: Schäuble’s curse

This is the end: Around six weeks after the European elections, the Left has lost its last bastion in the EU. Greece’s hapless Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was voted out of office.

The electoral defeat comes as no surprise. Because Tsipras never managed to win back the disappointed voters he and his Syriza party lost after the 2015 austerity dictate.

Now it’s avenging itself that Tsipras first – in the summer referendum – blinked to the left and then gave in. The „oxi“ that he hurled towards the Eurogroup and the troika at the time now falls back on him.

But even Tsipras‘ successor from the conservative Nea Dimokratia will have a hard time. Schäuble’s curse“ – the overly harsh conditions imposed by the former German finance minister in 2015 – also weighs heavily on them.

These conditions were not economic, but above all politically motivated. They were supposed to humiliate Tsipras and the left and put them on the chain after Schäuble’s coup – the ejection of the euro – had failed.

The harsh conditions included not only the privatisation of ports and airports, which resulted in the port of Piraeus now being in Chinese hands and Athens becoming dependent on Beijing.

This also included the fact that Greece will have to generate high primary surpluses (budget balance before debt service) for years to come. The tax cuts promised by the ND are hardly compatible with this.

A bitter irony of history is that Schäuble and his German supporters have brought to their knees Tsipras, one of the most pro-European, pragmatic and foreign-policy gifted leftists.

Without Tsipras, Northern Macedonia would never have been recognised, and Chancellor Merkel’s refugee deal with Turkey also relied on his help. Tsipras was recently one of her most reliable partners.

Another sad point is that the European left is now losing its last bastion in the EU. And this at a time when the right is increasingly shaping the agenda – Italy’s Salvini has just achieved several successes…

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator