Editorial: The fateful Mr. Tsipras

Mr. Tsipras came to power by lambasting everyone and everything, overtaken by a plethora of self-delusions and illusions, as he himself admitted in an earnest moment.

Those who follow developments in our country closely know that Greek politics is characterised by major deficiencies, screaming contradictions, and unique syndromes of power-hunger.

The imperfect management of the economic crisis is indicative of the country’s political problem. Precisely that is widely viewed as the reason that Greece has remained for many years in the deep tunnel of recession and continual back-tracking.

The case of the current government is clearly the most characteristic. Mr. Tsipras came to power by lambasting everyone and everything, overtaken by a plethora of self-delusions and illusions, as he himself admitted in an earnest moment.

Driven forward by supposedly heroic ideas, he chose his policies, collaborators and allies without a second thought.

The policy that he attempted to implement in his first six months of 2015 proved entirely unrealistic, which is why he was forced to abandon it overnight, literally dismissing his closest advisors.

Later, he freed himself from collaborators who disagreed, by declaring snap elections, but he held on to his coalition ally, despite the fact that glaring ideological and political differences separated them.

At the same time, he signed on to a programme which he himself did not believe in, and which his coalition ally did not strongly defend. His party also found repugnant the idea of supporting policies which until yesterday they were blasting in word and undermining in deed.

Despite all that, those in power lived days of glory and grandeur. At some point they even though they were invincible, that they would do as they wished, and that the rest would dance to their tune.

That is why they were intemperate and vengeful, and acted with impunity.

They never even considered seeking even a basic consensus. They did not even think of talking in the framework of a civilised political dialogue, as is the case now in Germany and other advanced and institutionally safeguarded European democracies.

In time, the contradictions surfaced, as they could not be hidden. They brought delays and created doubts, reservations, cancellations and great disappointments. That, altogether, revealed the self-interestedness of individuals and allies.

The political wear is by now obvious to the bare eye. A reversal of these trends is improbable.

The prime minister is being held captive to his own choices, and of course those of his allies. He is bound to them, cannot refuse them, and has no alternatives.

Of course, the prime minister is seeking alternatives, but he cannot find them, because he has burned bridges with the broader democratic alliance forces, in his effort to incorporate and absorb them. Now that this centre-left alliance is reborn, it will not lend a helping hand to its persecutor.

In other words, there is no path of return for Mr. Tsipras. He will follow the path of his bad fate, which he himself prepared.

Sooner or later, he will find himself confronting the judgment of the people. The international awards he won, either for courage or flexibility, have saved no one.

Let him rest assured that the Greek people will be not be generous with him, and that is because he exhibited contempt toward them, ignored them, and sought to deceive them.

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