Owning reforms
Ever since the start of the crisis Greek politicians have refused to take ownership of the kind of reforms the country needs. While certain reforms were included in their pre-election programs, they were never implemented due to the political cost attached to them.
Along with the crisis came the invention of attributing responsibility for these reforms to the country’s lenders and hindering their implementation. What we are seeing today is a kind of schizophrenia: ministers harshly criticizing reforms, before explaining that they must be implemented to avoid bankruptcy.
What a shame for the country and its political system that parties don’t dare assume responsibility for reforms in the justice system and public administration, and have to resort to lenders’ threats as a means of voting for changes that should have taken place decades ago.
Let us hope that politicians backing reforms, without hypocrisy and having to hide behind a foreign bad guy, will soon appear on the political landscape.
