Government’s change of tack on bailout extension does little to irk public
By Alkman Granitsas and Nektaria Stamouli, Wall Street Journal
ATHENS—Even as Greece’s new government races to deliver its promised list of reforms to its European creditors, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has quietly prepared the Greek public for the likelihood that he won’t deliver fully on his promises.
Amid the fiery and defiant rhetoric Mr. Tsipras has directed abroad in recent weeks, has also been a message managing down expectations at home. And while many commentators in Europe see Friday’s interim Eurogroup deal as a sign that Greece’s new government has capitulated on its pre-election promises, few Greeks—at least for now—see it that way.
“I’m happy because the Greeks have their heads up for the first time. It goes without doubt that we will depend on the creditors for decades,” said Roula Skardiakou, a 56-year-old small-business owner who says she expects little to actually change in her life. “But the least we can do is to show dignity and to assert the right to some respect.”
Following weeks of acrimony with its eurozone partners, Greece’s government last week changed tack and sought an extension to its €240 billion ($273 billion) bailout—something the Syriza-led government previously said it wouldn’t do. To finalize the deal, Greece must put forward by late Monday a preliminary list of reforms, ranging from tax evasion to streamlining the country’s fearsome bureaucracy.
Those preliminary reforms, if approved by eurozone finance ministers the following day, will give Greece’s cash-strapped government some breathing space to negotiate a new financing package for the years ahead. But the interim deal has all but frozen Syriza’s ambitions to reverse Greece’s austerity program, leaving it with just vague promises to fulfill its campaign agenda over the next several years.
But many Greeks already saw that coming. Since Greece’s January elections, the government has subtly shifted its message to voters, while still maintaining its thundering line abroad. In a campaign of leaks, declarations and speeches, the government has made clear it was ready to climb down on its demands for a debt restructuring, implement its promises over years rather than months, and increase wages only gradually.
“The policy retreats have already been prepared; the ground has already been prepared,” said Ilias Nikolakopoulos, a political scientist at Athens University. “A flip-flop on the loan deal will generate some disappointment, but not enough to endanger the overall popular standing of the government.”
For now that popularity seems to be unassailable. A fresh poll Sunday published in the small, pro-government Avgi newspaper shows that eight in 10 Greeks approve of the government’s handling of the negotiations. Other recent polls, including some conducted by more independently aligned newspapers, show similar support.
In the mainstream media, Greece’s influential Sunday newspapers struck a tone ranging from supportive, to one of caution over the challenges lying ahead.
While the center-left To Vima newspaper declared the deal an “honorable compromise,” the center-right Proto Thema —Greece’s largest-circulation Sunday paper and one that is generally hostile to the government—was neutral. It noted that the deal had taken pressure off the banks and the country continued to remain in the eurozone. None characterized the deal as a U-turn or “kolotouba”—Greek for somersault—despite the government’s climb down.
“Friday’s decision helped calm people, it makes them think that something positive actually happened,” said Athanasios Paraskevas, a 54-year-old pharmacist. “It covered their needs emotionally.”
