Greece: Creditors out to crush any trace of Syriza disobedience
By Dick Nichols
It has taken only nine months for the third memorandum between the
near-bankrupt Greek state and its creditors — the “Quartet” of the
European Union (EU), European Central Bank (ECB), International Monetary
Fund (IMF) and European Stability Mechanism (ESM) — to lurch to the
brink of crisis.
That deal, which the Syriza-led government of Prime Minister Alexis
Tsipras felt forced to swallow despite the Greek people rejecting an
earlier version by over 60% in a referendum last July, will provide the
country with €86 billion. About 90% of this will go to paying off debt.
In turn, the tightly policed Greek government must continue to
implement a package of strict austerity “reforms”. These cover pension
cuts, tax rises, privatisations and labour market deregulation.
On April 22, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Dutch president of the Eurogroup of
finance ministers, said that an in-principle agreement had been
reached. This involves the Greek government committing to implement a
“contingent” €3 billion bundle of extra cuts if the country fell behind
on its debt reduction targets.
