First published: Prospectmagazine.co.uk, 29/06/2015
Leaving the EU might not be the panacea some believe
Conspiracy theorists would have us believe that Syriza’s goal all along was to get to the point where the public would vote for Greece to leave the Eurozone. There will be plenty of time to disembowel this assertion, but next Sunday Greek citizens have been promised a referendum, in which they will be in essence voting on this issue.
Given that the referendum is over whether the Greek public accepts creditor terms that might not by then exist, the vote will effectively be on whether to reject the government of Alexis Tsipras and Syriza, while trying to stay in the Euro, or support it and quit. The unpredictability of random events means that a Yes vote could still end up with Grexit. A No vote, by contrast, would be a slam dunk Grexit. This option would at least give the government the authority to carry out its programme without interference and answer to the Greek people accordingly, but it is unlikely to be the easy ticket out of economic misery some imagine…Read more:
