By Aditya Pandey.
Syriza’s win in Greece underscored the fact that Greeks are in no mood to drink the poison of austerity concocted by their Eurozone creditors. Years of austerity measures have proved futile. A quarter of Greece’s GDP has vanished in thin air, half of its’ youth are sitting in home and growth has unsurprisingly come to a grinding halt.
Austerity measures have hit the poor the hardest.Soup-kitchens can be easily spotted on every nook and corner of the country. Syriza’s pro-poor and anti-austerity stance helped it to an emphatic win over its rivals. It won’t be illogical to compare Alexis Tsipras’ win with Arvind Kejriwal’s thumping victory in Delhi Assembly elections.
Both leaders had a clean message that reached people’s ears. Syriza has sent a clear message to its’ largest creditor, Germany that it won’t be black-mailed any more. People are loving the fact that for first time someone is taking a stand against Germany which was the chief architect of austerity plans that bled Greece dry.
I think Syriza’s win has brought much needed respite for poor. It would be great if Syriza could renegotiate the bailout deal and bring to the fore the fact that austerity measures have failed. Obviously, Germany won’t accept this fact because that would undermine Germany’s economic grip over its’ peers.
Ukraine- the center piece of Russia’s political ambitions is spiraling into a full blown crisis. Pro-Russian rebels backed by Russian military have been gaining on Ukraine’s territory. Greece under Syriza has refused to continue sanctions on Russia.
This shows a crack in the Eurozone. A divided Europe would serve Putin’s interest more than anyone. Europe had been inactive in lending any help to Ukraine but the recent talks of ceasefire between Putin and Poroshenko brokered by Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande proved otherwise.
Germany was concerned that talks in Washington of arming Ukraine could lead to a full blown war. Therefore, it was right for Germany and France to step in.
