This crisis is not over, nor has all the country’s commitments towards creditors and partners been fulfilled. The negotiations with the troika will confirm that this is true.
Reliable sources report that despite the relatively good climate, there are a lot of unresolved issues, mostly due to the unwillingness of many ministers to assume the cost of promised decisions and choices. This will not, however, get the country off the hook.
Regarding the election of a new President, as is said officially, the troika may “turn a blind eye” in order to facilitate the government with political developments. However, the less that gets implemented now means that the new program, which will accompany the debt settlement that we are after, will be “far more brutal” – in the words of the high-ranking government official.
At some point the troika may leave and the bailout may end, just like Samaras and Venizelos proclaim, but there must be no doubt that any new debt settlement will be accompanied by a series of commitments and promises that will ensure to creditors and partners that Greece will not end up in a new cycle of deficits and debts.
In this respect the current political power game seems surreal and absurd.
Truth be told, the next period will not be rosy.
The county will not get out of its commitments that easily, on the contrary, it will carry on walking on thin ice – and it is more than likely that Greece will move on without the political stability that is necessary for such a period.
Everything suggests that the cycle of coalition governments will be extended and it will be long. That is why the election of a new President is crucial.
Over the next years Greece will need a political President, with a deep understanding of the country’s problems, who will have managed state affairs at the highest level and will be in the position to converse abroad and to demand the respect of political leaders.
Based on all of the above, three candidates for the position of President could be Kostas Simitis, Kostas Karamanlis and Lucas Papadimos.
In the present circumstances in Greece, there is no room for mediocrities and indifferent non-political divs.
Antonis Karakousis
Originally published in the Sunday print edition
