The political “thermometer” turned red on Thursday evening in Greece’s Parliament as debate wound up over the most recent austerity and reform package submitted by the government to meet creditors’ demands and unblock a bailout package extending until mid 2018.
The more than 900-page omnibus bill, referred to as a “supplemental memorandum” in a leaked draft by the German finance ministry last week, on the surface aims to finalize negotiations to conclude the second review of the Greek program (third bailout), which is now delayed by more than a year. However, the latest austerity measures and market liberalizations also aim to guarantee – as per creditors’ demands, particularly the IMF – that the Greek state meets primary budget surplus targets at least until 2021.
The government’s line of defense, as enunciated by leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, was that countervailing measures equal austerity measures. The former would ostensibly be implemented after fiscal targets are met and with creditors’ acquiescence. Such “off-set” measures are mostly increased welfare spending, like subsidized rent and school lunches for lower-income households, but also tax cuts.
Conversely, the opposition sharply ridiculed the draft legislation, calling it a “fourth memorandum” and a desperate attempt to keep the gasping coalition government in power and majority MPs in their seats.
“Our country is being transformed into an austerity colony without an expiration date,” center-right main opposition New Democracy (ND) president Kyriakos Mitsotakis said from Parliament’s podium.
“The cycle of the biggest political scam that the country (Greece) has ever known is closing … you (SYRIZA government) claimed you’d end austerity and tear up the memorandums, and today you sign the memorandums in pairs — and with both hands,” Mitsotakis underlined, while asking why Tsipras failed to utter a word, as he said, over the pension cuts and lower tax-free threshold that are the main points of the omnibus bill.
Speaking before Mitsotakis, Tsipras mostly criticized the main opposition, as the ND party is comfortably leading leftist SYRIZA by double-digit percentage points in all recent mainstream opinion polls.
“The review is concluding and we’re heading, after seven years, for a comprehensive agreement to lead the country out of the memorandums. We are passing into a positive agenda, both for the country and society,” Tsipras said.
He also dismissed the opinion poll results, reminding that political confrontations are decided at the ballot box and not by polls.
Moreover, Tsipras promised that Greece will permanently cease being under creditors’ supervision as of 2018, and that all of the countervailing measures promised in the latest draft bill will be implemented.
