January 23, 2015 9:10 am
Konstantin Gergianakis, a German software executive of Greek origin who describes his politics as “left-leaning”, is convinced there is only one way for Athens to emerge from economic crisis: A tough-love prescription of reform.
“If you ask for money then you have to expect that the one who offers it sets conditions — that’s normal,” said Mr Gergianakis, chief executive of MS-POS, a software consultancy near Düsseldorf. “The recipient is not in a position to be able to make demands. It sounds harsh but that’s the truth.”
ON THIS STORY
- Analysis Alexis Tsipras – Greece’s radical or realist?
- Q&A Greek election
- Greek tax payments dry up ahead of election
- Newcomer poised for pivotal Greek role
- Letter Europe will benefit from Greece being given a fresh start
ON THIS TOPIC
- The World Greek cleaners and gesture politics
- Ex-Greek allies locked in political battle
- The World Greek political dynasties will bide their time
- Global Insight Syriza’s far-left sees victory as revenge
IN EUROPE
Sign up now
FirstFT is our new essential daily email briefing of the best stories from across the web
Greeks go to the polls on Sunday in an election that has shaped up as a referendum and rejection of that German-styled response to its economic ills. After five years of wrenching austerity in which the economy has contracted by more than a fifth, many of its eurozone partners are now questioning those policies and even entertaining the possibility of granting Athens some relief for its €317bn debt burden.
But what is notable in Germany, a wealthy nation that still prizes the parsimony of the Swabian housewife, is how little public opinion has shifted from the early days of the crisis.
Perhaps reflecting Greece fatigue, weariness has replaced the venom spewed by the popular media at the height of the crisis. In 2010, for example, Bild, the tabloid newspaper, urged Athens: “Sell your islands, you bankrupt Greeks — and the Acropolis, too!”
Still, according to an ARD television poll, 68 per cent of Germans oppose a debt cut for Greece. And 61 per cent said that if Greece reneged on its international obligations — as the poll-leading Syriza party has threatened — it should leave the eurozone.
“Many things have gone wrong with the Greeks, economically,” says Fabian Bäcker, 19, a student in Hamburg who is taking a year out as an environmental volunteer.
In depth
Greece struggles on with drastic austerity as eurozone leaders continue to argue over how to help the country cope with its debt mountain
Further reading
Further reading
Mr Bäcker opposes a debt-cut that would leave Germany “financially disadvantaged” and instead believes any assistance should be tied to further austerity and economic reform.
“I think this support for Greece from European countries should be approved under specific austerity measures and I think it has to be demonstrated that the Greeks take these austerity measures seriously,” he said. “And then I think the opinion of the [German] people, also my opinion, would be positive for Greece.”
The experience of forcing through a series of deeply unpopular eurozone bailouts has left Angela Merkel only too aware of how Germans such as Mr Bäcker feel about Greece and what they will tolerate. Ahead of Sunday’s vote her government has adopted a no-nonsense posture.
Der Spiegel magazine reported this month that the chancellor had dropped her commitment to keep Greece in the eurozone and was ready to it leave if a new government in Athens demanded excessive concessions.
Ms Merkel’s spokesman said there had been no policy change but left the impression Germany was sending Greece a tough message, reinforced by Wolfgang Schäuble, finance minister.
What would a government led by Syriza’s Alexis Tsipras mean for Greece and the future of the eurozone?
Mr Schäuble, who has made it a chief policy goal to balance Germany’s federal budget for the first time in 45 years, said debt cuts for Greece were “out of the question”. Germany is Greece’s biggest creditor because of its share of the rescue loans given to Athens by EU institutions.
Only the far-left Linke party is calling for debt relief for Greece, combined with a general surge in EU public welfare and investment spending. But Linke has almost no impact. Ms Merkel’s conservative CDU/CSU is far more worried about the right, where the eurosceptic Alternative für Deutschland has won support by advocating an organised break-up of the euro.
Outside the government, there are more nuanced voices. Marcel Fratzscher, head of the DIW economic think-thank in Berlin, said this month that Greece should be granted debt relief in return for more reforms.
But Mr Fratzscher was shouted down by the German taxpayers’ federation, whose president called the remarks a “grievous mistake” that could force Germany to pick up the cheque for Greece’s “failure to reform” once again.
In Athens, Germany’s austerity diktats have long been viewed as myopic and cruel. German debts were forgiven after the second world war, paving the way for the Wirtschaftswunder or “economic miracle”. Yet Berlin is now unwilling to consider the same for Greece.
Greeks complain that while Germans rail at “corruption” in their country they reflect little on the bribes paid by German companies such as Siemens to win contracts in Athens.
Alexis Tsipras, Syriza’s firebrand leader, appealed directly to German citizens with a column in last week’s Handelsblatt newspaper. Mr Tsipras rejected a continuation of the “fiscal waterboarding” imposed by creditors but also promised “German taxpayers have nothing to fear from a Syriza government”.
But judging by Mr Gergianakis, swaying German public opinion will not be easy. “I’m quite strict,” he said. “I don’t understand the reaction of [the Greeks]. They shouldn’t have let it come to a situation like this.”
Additional reporting by Jeevan Vasagar
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen