NEWS

Chomsky: EU reaction to Greek bid to reverse austerity was ‘extremely savage’

The American left-wing philosopher and activist Noam Chomsky has said that the European Union’s reaction to the new Greek government’s bid to roll back austerity policies in the debt-hit country was “extremely savage,” while warning of a far-right backlash.

“The reaction to SYRIZA was extremely savage,” Chomsky said in an interview with Democracy Now! on Tuesday.

“They made a little bit of progress in their negotiations, but not much. The Germans came down very hard on them. They forced them to back off from almost all of their proposals,” he said, adding that austerity is “really class war.”

In the same interview, Chomsky warned that developments could strengthen Greece’s far right. “The alternative to SYRIZA might be Golden Dawn, the neo-Nazi party,” he said.

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