A winning formula for change
Parliament’s approval yesterday of a government bill designed to open the road freight sector to competition, a key reform under the multi-billion-euro bailout plan agreed to with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, is a very welcome development. This is particularly pleasing given that the proposed legislation – which prompted more than 2,500 truck drivers to stage a protest outside Parliament in central Athens – received the backing of the conservative New Democracy party and a small number of independent deputies. The outcome of yesterday’s vote demonstrates that pressure on Greece from the troika combined with political consensus can cure many of the problems that have beset the country for decades. The fear of political cost – a bogeyman that has killed off many necessary reforms in the past – is receding. The country urgently needs greater consensus between the mainstream political parties so as to open the path for other painful but necessary measures.
