Tread carefully
Traditionally France has always been one of Greece’s greatest allies and the two-day visit by French President Francois Hollande was extremely important because it comes at a crucial time for the country and shows that Athens can count on Paris’s help.
The government, however, needs to be cautious and not take this support for granted. In the first months of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s first government, several grave mistakes were made because of inexperience. The government jumped to the wrong conclusion from the warm welcome it received from Paris and Rome and made some fatal errors at the negotiating table.
Hollande’s support is extremely important but it must not be misinterpreted because the European power game – plus the unpredictable factor of the IMF – is very complex. If the Greek government does not live up to its commitments and insists on controlling the state machine rather than giving it its independence, we will soon find ourselves back in the eye of the storm.
