Perilous habits

Greece’s leftist-led administration will never manage to overcome the existing deadlocks as long as it continues to operate in the current mode: The government is procrastinating, it shies away from hard facts, it is constantly looking for scapegoats, it still believes it can carry out its groundless pledges, it refuses to go by international standards, it tries to get away with makeshift solutions, and it fails to see that its actions are under constant monitoring.

The government’s failures are evident across a wide range of issues – the country’s banking system, social security reform, state revenues, the immigration crisis, the privatization of regional airports, the controversy over the gold mine in Halkidiki, northern Greece, and so on.

What is worse is that the SYRIZA-led government has proved totally unable to learn from its mistakes. As a result, the country’s problems remain unsolved. Alexis Tsipras and his ministers must finally realize that time is running out.