Opinion of Alexis Tsipras

[Senator Cris]

HP.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Mega-HP. He is a weak leader that can't control even his own party.
He has appointed a psychopathic narcissist  as FinMin, a crypto-fascist shrew as President of the Parliament and a bunch of incompetent anti-European neo-Stalinists and far-right loons at his cabinet.

His indecisiveness and procrastination has brought us into a much worse place than we were four months ago, his arrogance and divisive rhetoric has alienated even our closest allies (Cyprus) and his only "accomplishments" so far have been the abolishment of the few structural reforms enacted by the previous governments. 

At least from the polls, it seems that the Greek people support him, which should count for something.

Not anymore. Approval of his government has fallen from 83% in February to 40% now.

What was Samaras's approval this many months in?

[Landslide Lyndon]

Mega-HP. He is a weak leader that can't control even his own party.
He has appointed a psychopathic narcissist  as FinMin, a crypto-fascist shrew as President of the Parliament and a bunch of incompetent anti-European neo-Stalinists and far-right loons at his cabinet.

His indecisiveness and procrastination has brought us into a much worse place than we were four months ago, his arrogance and divisive rhetoric has alienated even our closest allies (Cyprus) and his only "accomplishments" so far have been the abolishment of the few structural reforms enacted by the previous governments.  

At least from the polls, it seems that the Greek people support him, which should count for something.

Not anymore. Approval of his government has fallen from 83% in February to 40% now.

What was Samaras's approval this many months in?

Samaras's approval was consistently low. He was always seen as the lesser of two evils.
Tsipras OTOH was elected with great hopes of bringing something new but he quickly showed his true colors of being just another politician hellbent to protect and strengthen the clientelistic state that brought the crisis.

[VPH]

FF, and although I was hopeful at first, it appears he's caught in a bind.

[Bacon King]

Mega-HP. He is a weak leader that can't control even his own party.
He has appointed a psychopathic narcissist  as FinMin, a crypto-fascist shrew as President of the Parliament and a bunch of incompetent anti-European neo-Stalinists and far-right loons at his cabinet.

His indecisiveness and procrastination has brought us into a much worse place than we were four months ago, his arrogance and divisive rhetoric has alienated even our closest allies (Cyprus) and his only "accomplishments" so far have been the abolishment of the few structural reforms enacted by the previous governments. 

At least from the polls, it seems that the Greek people support him, which should count for something.

Not anymore. Approval of his government has fallen from 83% in February to 40% now.

What was Samaras's approval this many months in?

Samaras's approval was consistently low. He was always seen as the lesser of two evils.
Tsipras OTOH was elected with great hopes of bringing something new but he quickly showed his true colors of being just another politician hellbent to protect and strengthen the clientelistic state that brought the crisis.

genuine question- with Tsipras's fall in popularity, why is SYRIZA still polling double-digit leads?

[Landslide Lyndon]

Mega-HP. He is a weak leader that can't control even his own party.
He has appointed a psychopathic narcissist  as FinMin, a crypto-fascist shrew as President of the Parliament and a bunch of incompetent anti-European neo-Stalinists and far-right loons at his cabinet.

His indecisiveness and procrastination has brought us into a much worse place than we were four months ago, his arrogance and divisive rhetoric has alienated even our closest allies (Cyprus) and his only "accomplishments" so far have been the abolishment of the few structural reforms enacted by the previous governments. 

At least from the polls, it seems that the Greek people support him, which should count for something.

Not anymore. Approval of his government has fallen from 83% in February to 40% now.

What was Samaras's approval this many months in?

Samaras's approval was consistently low. He was always seen as the lesser of two evils.
Tsipras OTOH was elected with great hopes of bringing something new but he quickly showed his true colors of being just another politician hellbent to protect and strengthen the clientelistic state that brought the crisis.

genuine question- with Tsipras's fall in popularity, why is SYRIZA still polling double-digit leads?

Because the main opposition parties are even more loathed than SYRIZA.
Even so, the huge 20 points leads of March and April are long gone. Now most polls show SYRIZA ahead by 8-9 points, more or less the result of January 25.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Not that PASOK has any relevance at this point, but are any of the people standing to replace Venizelos any good? Loverdos in particular seems like a tool from what I've read.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Not that PASOK has any relevance at this point, but are any of the people standing to replace Venizelos any good? Loverdos in particular seems like a tool from what I've read.

No, they are all pretty much useless. PASOK is dead and nothing can resurrect it.

[Beezer]

I love the chutzpah of this guy:

We will patiently wait for the institutions adhere to realism. Those who perceive our sincere wish for a solution and our attempts to bridge the differences as a sign of weakness, should consider the following:

We are not simply shouldering a history laden with struggles.

We are shouldering the dignity of our people, as well as the hopes of the people of Europe. We cannot ignore this responsibility. This is not a matter of ideological stubbornness. This is about democracy.

We do not have the right to bury European democracy in the place where it was born.

http://www.primeminister.gov.gr/english/2015/06/15/prime-minister-alexis-tsipras-statement-in-efimerida-ton-syntakton-efsyn-newspaper-on-the-issues-relating-to-the-current-negotiation/

Does Tsipras find himself in a bad situation? Sure. But let's not forget that he has made it far worse by acting like a Marxist teenager. Before he entered government, the country was slowly but surely recovering. Now it's back in a deep recession, its banks are empty and it's about to face a messy exit from the eurozone.

[Velasco]

Does Tsipras find himself in a bad situation? Sure. But let's not forget that he has made it far worse by acting like a Marxist teenager. Before he entered government, the country was slowly but surely recovering. Now it's back in a deep recession, its banks are empty and it's about to face a messy exit from the eurozone.

I have to assume that you welcome that the leader of a small bankrupt country is in a "bad situation".

Let's not forget that before Tsipras entered in the government, a large proportion of the Greek population was (and still is) in a situation of humanitarian emergency. That "recovery" you mention was for sure "slow", but it was nowhere near from being "secure". Why are you persisting in false premises? Should we remember again that austerity policies failed in the very purpose for which they were designed? Stating that "we are shouldering the dignity of our people" is "teenage Marxism", in your view? Well, just say that the very Jean-Claude Juncker has admitted a couple of premises supported by Tsipras and his people: a) Greece is indeed in a state of "humanitarian emergency";  b) he stated that the "Troika insulted Greece's dignity".

http://en.protothema.gr/juncker-the-troika-insulted-greeces-dignity/

Thus, I have to conclude from your post that a former leader of certain tax haven state is suffering an illness called "Marxist childishness". It's a brilliant and original argumentation, no doubt about it.

[Beezer]

Juncker's comments or his personal background are of no importance to me. Ultimately the Greek people have no one to blame but themselves for finding themselves in a position where other institutions were placed to supposedly disrespect their dignity. If you get a bailout from the IMF, expect to hand over your sovereignty.

Moreover, there's a difference between acknowledging that the reform program implemented by the troika had its flaws (which I presume is what Juncker hinted at) and going full Socialist wetdream as Tsipras would like to do. My focus also was mainly on the presumptuous and rather haughty "we represent the hopes of the people of Europe." LOL, you're not representing my hopes with your antiquated Socialist program.

[Velasco]

The importance you attribute to Jean-Claude Juncker is irrelevant. He's the president of the European Commission and therefore an important actor in this tragicomedy. I know that you only give credit to Angela Merkel and Wolgang Schäuble, and they are probably the true bosses alongside with other de facto powers. However, Mr. Juncker has a say due to the office he currently holds and it's truly worrying and symptomatic the way you disrespect the highest European authorities. You must be suffering that illness called Euroescepticism. For Greek people this situation is not a comedy, it's simply a tragedy. Honestly, you are insulting them with sentences like:

Ultimately the Greek people have no one to blame but themselves for finding themselves in a position where other institutions were placed to supposedly disrespect their dignity. If you get a bailout from the IMF, expect to hand over your sovereignty.

I must ask you if that bailout from the IMF was demanded by Greek people and where is the money.

[Beezer]

Well, it was demanded by the Greek government. Where's the money? In the accounts of French and German banks I suppose. But that's what happens when you're indebted to credit institutions. I find it rather entertaining how some people seem to think that paying your creditors is an expenditure that is somehow not as "valid" as other government spending (pensions, welfare, infrastructure, etc.). Personally, I think that no Greek bailout should have ever taken place (with European countries then bailing out their own banks in the aftermath of a Greek default) but that's an entirely different matter.

And yes, I'll freely admit that I don't much care about Juncker or his office. He's a washed up Luxembourger who preaches water and drinks the wine of other European countries by offering shady tax deals to companies. So you'll have to excuse me for not placing too much importance on his public statements about European solidarity.

[Velasco]

Just as a reminder, this is how a recent article in the NYT describes in short the process:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/24/magazine/a-finance-minister-fit-for-a-greek-tragedy.html?_r=0

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Let's focus on that part in bold letters. No doubt that Greek leaders were "corrupt" and "sclerotic". The article defines those financial institutions lending money to that rotten political and institutional machine as "imprudent". It's a way to put it mildly, because that behaviour was not only hazardous: the way banks inflated the Greek bubble and speculated for the sake of the Goddess of Profit was at the very least objectionable and morally irresponsible. Special mention deserve European institutions, whose officials turned a blind eye to the make up of public accounts submitted by the Greek government (it was a ND adminstration, btw). In short, the responsibility lies not only on corrupt authorities, but on lenders who knew that Greek accounts were inflated, audit firms that helped corrupt authorities with make up workshop (Goldman Sachs), EU institutions and member states. However, the burden of the austerity package has fallen on the shoulders of the Greek people. Probably people like you think the impoverished Greek deserve the fate they have, in spite of the fact that common people usually know nothing about high finance. I believe that it's a blatant injustice that the ones who are collectively responsible of that state of affairs (past corrupt administrations, banks, audit firms, international finantial institutions, EU and country members) are not only unpunished... ultimately, banks have benefited with the Greek disgrace. Still, all of them feel entitled to give morality lessons if someone dares to say that people can no longer afford the prohibitive burden they impose. I think we had enough of that hypocrisy, to be honest.

On a side note, the demonisation of Varoufakis could be amusing to some extent. The pains of Greek people never, dear austerity mongers.

Personally, I think that no Greek bailout should have ever taken place (with European countries then bailing out their own banks in the aftermath of a Greek default) but that's an entirely different matter.

Personally, I think that Greece should never been admitted in the Euro. It's amusing how hypocrites in some EU countries fail to see their responsibility on that.

And yes, I'll freely admit that I don't much care about Juncker or his office. He's a washed up Luxembourger who preaches water and drinks the wine of other European countries by offering shady tax deals to companies. So you'll have to excuse me for not placing too much importance on his public statements about European solidarity.

Again, that's entirely irrelevant. You can propose granting full powers to Frau Merkel or Herr Schäuble in the EU Commission if you want.

[SWE]

I don't dislike him and understand that the Greek government is being held by the balls, but still a disappointment.

[Simfan34]

Mega-HP. He is a weak leader that can't control even his own party.
He has appointed a psychopathic narcissist  as FinMin, a crypto-fascist shrew as President of the Parliament and a bunch of incompetent anti-European neo-Stalinists and far-right loons at his cabinet.

His indecisiveness and procrastination has brought us into a much worse place than we were four months ago, his arrogance and divisive rhetoric has alienated even our closest allies (Cyprus) and his only "accomplishments" so far have been the abolishment of the few structural reforms enacted by the previous governments. 

At least from the polls, it seems that the Greek people support him, which should count for something.

Not anymore. Approval of his government has fallen from 83% in February to 40% now.

What was Samaras's approval this many months in?

Samaras's approval was consistently low. He was always seen as the lesser of two evils.
Tsipras OTOH was elected with great hopes of bringing something new but he quickly showed his true colors of being just another politician hellbent to protect and strengthen the clientelistic state that brought the crisis.

genuine question- with Tsipras's fall in popularity, why is SYRIZA still polling double-digit leads?

Because the main opposition parties are even more loathed than SYRIZA.
Even so, the huge 20 points leads of March and April are long gone. Now most polls show SYRIZA ahead by 8-9 points, more or less the result of January 25.

They are?

[Landslide Lyndon]

Huh? Where do they get these data?
Just yesterday we had a new poll where SYRIZA's lead declined from 14,5 points to 12. And that was one of the best for them in a long time.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Anyway, Fofi won. She seems to be a daughter of some party bigwig. Ugh. At least she's a rare female presence I guess.

[Bacon King]

Huh? Where do they get these data?
Just yesterday we had a new poll where SYRIZA's lead declined from 14,5 points to 12. And that was one of the best for them in a long time.

The big seems to be a lack of quality control and the simple fact that there's bound to be more bad polls than good. Wikipedia shows this poll with a 29 point SYRIZA lead; it was conducted on behalf of a leftist pro-SYRIZA radio station in Athens, 105.5 The Reds and appears to be ideologically motivated. Another common sight (and terrible methodological practice) is that many polls like this SYRIZA +26 poll ask the headline voting question at the very end of the poll, rather than leading with it.

A second issue is that for polls with undecideds, Wikipedia allocates the undecideds proportionally among all the parties. This is done to keep those polls consistent/comparable with the pollsters that allocate undecided pollsters themselves before publishing the data, but has a side-effect of slightly exaggerating the lead of the party in first place (for example, this poll has a 9.1 point SYRIZA lead but wikipedia ends up with a 10.4 point SYRIZA lead). The bigger the lead is, the more it increases after the adjustment.

[© tweed]

the smart money is on a Grexit now.  we're just warming up.  Tsipras and Yanis could've kept bowing down to the *Troika, lost power within a year or two and been forgotten.  by bowing out of the Eurozone they put the chips on the table.  it's gonna be chaos, and they know it.  Yanis has said so, talking about 'scrip money' and other huge difficulties.  it'll either be a landmark moment in the history of struggle against neoliberalism, and reversal of Austerity, or a disspiriting warning sign that the people who own the world can force their will upon you.

 they do have allies -- Tsipras has shown signs of being close with the Latin American 'pink tide' leaders, and met with Putin a week ago or so -- you know Putin could throw Greece a small, but possibly decisive bone just to piss the West off.  it's obvious that's why they're doing what they're doing with Snowden -- it is not like he is of any advantage to them, but pisses the US power system (though not the American people) off like nothing else.  

God bless their effort.

[Landslide Lyndon]

they do have allies -- Tsipras has shown signs of being close with the Latin American 'pink tide' leaders, and met with Putin a week ago or so -- you know Putin could throw Greece a small, but possibly decisive bone just to piss the West off.  it's obvious that's why they're doing what they're doing with Snowden -- it is not like he is of any advantage to them, but pisses the US power system (though not the American people) off like nothing else.  

God bless their effort.

LOL! Putin has urged Tsipras to strike a deal with EU and IMF.
In case you missed it he isn't exactly flush with money right now to squander tens of billions for paying Greece's 45 and 50-year old pensioners or our brand new government mouthpiece TV station.

[ingemann]

they do have allies -- Tsipras has shown signs of being close with the Latin American 'pink tide' leaders, and met with Putin a week ago or so -- you know Putin could throw Greece a small, but possibly decisive bone just to piss the West off.  it's obvious that's why they're doing what they're doing with Snowden -- it is not like he is of any advantage to them, but pisses the US power system (though not the American people) off like nothing else.  

God bless their effort.

LOL! Putin has urged Tsipras to strike a deal with EU and IMF.
In case you missed it he isn't exactly flush with money right now to squander tens of billions for paying Greece's 45 and 50-year old pensioners or our brand new government mouthpiece TV station.

Yup, Putin have kept his hands far away from supporting Greece with cash. I really doubt Russia could afford it even at the best of time, at least not without giving most of their other clients up, but at this point Russia can barely afford supporting their existing clients. Also it's not my impression that Greece are a country who stay bought, the moment a better offer comes along (nothing wrong with that). The Russian clients are usual kept in line through a mix of financial support, cheap gas and the implicit threat of military violence. The last wouldn't really work on Greece.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Can someone reasonably explain how austerity will help the Greek people?

[ag]

the smart money is on a Grexit now.  we're just warming up.  Tsipras and Yanis could've kept bowing down to the IMF, lost power within a year or two and been forgotten.  by bowing out of the Eurozone they put the chips on the table.  it's gonna be chaos, and they know it.  Yanis has said so, talking about 'scrip money' and other huge difficulties.  it'll either be a landmark moment in the history of struggle against neoliberalism, and reversal of Austerity, or a disspiriting warning sign that the people who own the world can force their will upon you.

I am afraid, the way they are managing it, it will be truly a landmark moment. Unfortunately, it seems like a couple of generations of Greeks will have to pay for it very heavily. They, surely, will never get a chance to forget.

[ingemann]

Can someone reasonably explain how austerity will help the Greek people?

Austerity have no inherent postive value, no more than a poor person living of spaghetti and ketchup the last week of the month have any inherent positive value. But the long term effect of the alternative way of lending at high interest are much worse.