At the beginning of this month, during his trip to Lisbon, Prime Minister Tsipras described Portugal as a model to be followed.
As it turns out, however, the model that the government is steadfastly imitating is that of the worst political traits of the last 40 years, a faithful copy of all those bad habits which are now commonly viewed as the causes of the economic crisis.
One of those bad habits is the handouts that the government has hastened to announce before the end of the year.
In contrast to the example of Portugal, where raises were offered based on economic planning, the planning of the Syriza-Independent Greeks coalition government is simply pre-electoral.
The objective is not social, it is vote-mongering. It is not to relieve pain, but rather to grab votes.
If there is one lesson the Greek political system should have learned, it is that bad habits are very costly. The government is attempting to cultivate the delusion that these handouts are simply an appetiser before a filling meal, which will come after the exit from the current bailout memorandum, in August, 2018.
In this manner, the government is in peril of blowing to shreds its political narrative of a clean exit from the memorandum – with society making demands, with ministers pressuring to serve their political clienteles, and with creditors once again revoking their trust.
On that trip to Lisbon, the prime minister stated that he will use Portugal as an example to convince our partners that Greece should implement the same social policies.
With such a deficit in planning, however, it is certain that the argument will not be at all persuasive.
