Friday, January 1, 2016

The 7 best policy backflips (κωλοτούμπες) of 2015 – POLITICO

The 7 best policy backflips of 2015 – POLITICO



#1. Tsipras on austerity

January: The Syriza party sweeps to power, with new Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras saying Greeks had “given a clear, strong, indisputable mandate. Greece has turned a page. Greece is leaving behind destructive austerity, fear and authoritarianism. It is leaving behind five years of humiliation and pain.”
June: Tsipras calls a referendum on EU creditors’ demands for public spending cuts in exchange for a third bailout program for Greece. He urges people to vote No, saying the required reforms are “an ultimatum towards Greek democracy and the Greek people” and “an ultimatum at odds with the founding principles and values of Europe, the values of our common European construction.”
July 5: More than 60 percent of Greeks vote No, and Tsipras vows to return to the negotiating table with “a mandate for finding a sustainable solution and to take us out of this vicious cycle of austerity.”
July 12: Faced with a plan from German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble for a Grexit from the eurozone, Tsipras bows to creditors’ demands for spending cuts and privatizations during marathon negotiations in Brussels.
“I overestimated the power of righteousness,” Tsipras says. He successfully urges the Greek parliament to approve the reforms, saying, “They won’t benefit the Greek economy, but I’m forced to accept them.”
September: Tsipras wins re-election, telling supporters the result is a message from Greeks to “continue the noble struggle we started seven months ago.”

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