An ungoverned country
The state of affairs in Greece has become quite clear over the past few days, unfortunately confirming reports by analysts and media pointing to a complete absence of governance. The exercise of power has never been an easy thing in Greece but the situation has spiraled beyond control under the present government. The simple reason is that the behavior of Alexis Tsipras’s administration shows a combination of fixations, ignorance, ineptitude and lack of will power.
The angry reactions we hear from the prime minister’s office to all manner of criticism and the efforts of Tsipras himself and other government officials to put the blame on political opponents and nefarious domestic or international interests are a diversion tactic and a bid to hide a reality that cannot be hidden.
There is plenty of proof that Greece is not being governed. Hospitals are unable to function due to staff shortages. In education, the government is abolishing every effort made at improvement in the name of a national dialogue (that the government is dictating alone) and with the sole objective of reviving all the things that caused its demise. It appears determined to respect the rights of vandals who tear down the city and there have even been signs that it is allowing convicted terrorists to have a say in decision making. It has proved completely incapable of managing the refugee/migrant crisis due to fear of reactions from within its own ranks if protesting migrants are removed from the railway tracks that link Greece to the rest of Europe – even if this results in major companies like Hewlett Packard stopping shipments through Greece.
The biggest sign of nongovernance, however, is the efforts of ministers and government officials to annul the implementation of commitments undertaken by the government and signed by Tsipras. Basically nothing is being implemented and no reforms are actually going through. In contrast, the strategy is to back down to pressure, back away from promises, launch witch hunts, invent enemies big and small, open new fronts and announce new tax measures that are then canceled or remain on paper, coupled with a policy of tax hikes that work against businesses and the market and cause even more instability. It is as though the government is actually trying to establish a South American socialist economic model at a time when the people there are starting to reject it.
To the long list of evidence pointing to a ungoverned country we could also add the government’s foreign policy, which appears to lack any fundamental principles, though this is a minor detail for the majority of the country, which appears happy to be misled.
