Is the government capable?
As the outcome of last week’s meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Luxembourg showed, the Greek government had raised the bar too high on debt and the ECB’s quantitative easing program (QE), and ended up falling short.
Debt-wracked Greece, of course, needs to return to normalcy. The question is whether the SYRIZA-Independent Greeks coalition has what it takes to achieve this goal.
The administration has regularly proved its ability to pass very painful reform measures in Parliament without suffering losses. It remains highly doubtful, however, whether it will be able to change its ways in practice in order to gain the trust of the financial markets and of foreign investors so it can jump-start the economy.
But beyond the economy, today’s government is plagued by administrative deficiencies and obsessions that cause damage in critical areas such as education and domestic security.
We have a long road ahead of us in order to become a normal country.
