Greece’s main opposition party, leftist SYRIZA, is acting incredibly irresponsibly. Last year it championed a debt restucturing for Greece but once the private sector involvement (PSI) deal was in the pipeline, it turned against the scheme, arguing that it would take a toll on social security funds and private Greek bondholders. It ignored the simple fact that the only choice for Greece at the time was either to pay its debts or take a write-down, with costs being passed on to private bondholders.

It now wants the decisions taken at last week’s European Union summit, which allow eurozone banks to be recapitalized by the European Stability Mechanism rather than using funds from the public coffers, to apply to Greece as well, even though SYRIZA was very critical of the previous government under Lucas Papademos and George Papandreou for wanting more support for Greece’s banking system.

This kind of hypocrisy has got to stop and SYRIZA needs to pick which policy lane it wants to travel in and stay the distance.