Debt-free and proud: Greece under the leftists

 

By John Hadoulis (AFP)

ATHENS — No debt repayments, higher salaries and freedom from EU-IMF tutelage: Greece under the radical leftists, who are poised to win a June 17 election, seems a world removed from its current recession nightmare.
The Syriza party has pledged to tear up Greece's loan agreement with the EU and the IMF, which is currently keeping the country on its feet but at the cost of an unprecedented wave of austerity cuts and structural reforms.
If implemented, such a programme, which would also mean the nationalisation of banks and a halt to privatisation, could well mean Greece's ejection from the eurozone, potentially sending shockwaves through the global economy.
Fed up with two years of salary and pension cuts, Greek voters on May 6 punished larger parties associated with the bailout and catapulted Syriza to second place, within striking distance of the top.
Opinion polls show that the radical leftists, only the fifth party in 2009, could even emerge as the victors in this month's repeat ballot.
The condensed programme of the loosely-knit coalition of moderate Communists, Trotskyists, ecologists and other leftist groups was announced on June 1.
In it, the party's leading minds set out their vision for a more equitable Greece, liberated from the excesses of capitalism, heavy industry and political corruption.
Under Syriza's blueprint, state loan repayments to service a debt of over 350 billion euros ($433 billion) are to be frozen to free funds for social support programmes...........................

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