First steps
Even government officials admit that the conservative administration has so far failed to resolve the major problems dogging the Greek economy and society. Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis has repeatedly said that there is a long way to go, while Economy Minister Giorgos Alogoskoufis recently noted that the Greek economy is still beset by structural weaknesses. The truth however is that much more could have been done had Karamanlis been bolder and his ministers more effective. That said, one should not disregard what the government inherited from its Socialist predecessors and that Greece’s is a sclerotic society, as reflected by the reactions of vested interests to the conservatives’ reform proposals. The painful experience of 1993 showed that shock therapies stand no chance in Greece and merely play into the hands of populist politicians. However, despite the inexperience of government cadres and weak management from the Maximos Mansion, the government has done a lot to rehabilitate the economy (as demonstrated by the Commission’s decision to lift the regime of economic supervision). It must also be credited with fiscal reform, restoring transparency in transactions with the state and sustaining a high growth rate. All this did not fall from the sky. It’s the fruit of a series of reforms that include tax breaks for new businesses, privatizations and a new development law that has resulted in more than 18,000 jobs. Perhaps all this is not enough, as serious problems in the domains of social security, health and education persist. But the latter cannot nullify the economic progress made and the zero tolerance shown in instances of corruption. PASOK officials prefer to shrug at all these achievements, but that’s only natural, because to do otherwise would be to condemn their own sinful tenure.
