Handelsblatt on Friday recalled a now infamous boast by then firebrand opposition leader Alexis Tsipras in 2014, namely, that “we’ll beat the tabor (snare drum) and the markets will dance”, months before his radical leftist SYRIZA party assumed power in snap election in January 2015.
The German financial daily, in an article entitled “Suspicious markets”, referred to a simplistic suggestion made by Tsipras at the time, which subsequently proved to be a costly mistake.
Handelsblatt bemoaned the high yields now plaguing post-bailout Greek bonds, the highest in the Eurozone, and the beleaguered Tsipras government’s difficulty in turning to the markets for its borrowing needs due to the budget row between Rome and Brussels over the draft Italian budget and economic uncertainty in Turkey.
“Nevertheless, markets’ suspicions are primarily due to Greece itself. Alexis Tsipras can do little over the level of the debt. With his policies, however, he is increasing markets’ concern. The co-governance (coalition) with the AN.EL party is ‘shaky’. As such, the prime minister risks losing the majority in Parliament in a few months … Alexis Tsipras has already started (doling out) pre-election gifts; he wants to suspend pension cuts, distribute a social dividend and roll back reforms in the labor markets: The worst-case scenario for investors,” Handelsblatt writes.
