The Syriza-Independent Greeks coalition government began its term in office as the naughty child of the eurozone, only to end up, after much vacillation, as the dutiful pupil.
The grand pronouncements that the government would play the musical organs and the markets would dance to its tune are long forgotten. The threats of setting off an explosion, such as the one at Kougi during the Greek War of Independence, disappeared.
In this new period of obedience and subjugation – of which Syriza accused previous governments before discovering its own pro-memorandum path – the government failed to achieve the result for the sake of which it made so many political reversals – to establish a minimum sense of trust with creditors.
The lack of trust explains why the IMF set up lines of defence. The fear that the government is chomping at the bit to hand out benefits from a ravaged economy, simply for electoral reasons, is obvious.
The main repercussion is that the country is burdened by this lack of trust, the same lack of trust that expelled it from the markets eight years ago.
A second repercussion is that the blockade erected by the IMF overturns the government’s electoral plans.
The government’s intention is to hold elections, without having to first cut pensions or lower the tax-free ceiling, as it pledged to do.
If the government wants to serve its full term, it will have to drink the bitter brew that it brought upon itself to the last drop.
