First published: ft.com, 26/01/2015
A new chapter of European instability is only just beginning
Three years ago, Syriza was only just recognisable as a modern political party. Today it is the new government of Greece, perhaps even with an overall majority in the legislature.
To implement its ambitious economic renewal programme, the party believes Greece must renegotiate debt arrangements and conditions with its creditors: the so-called “troika” of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. It has pledged to stop what Alexis Tsipras has called the “fiscal waterboarding” policies that have turned Greece into a debt colony and created widespread poverty and unemployment. In what promises to be the first serious clash between creditors and a sovereign debtor since the eurozone crisis began, someone is going to blink. But who, and with what implications?…“more:”
