“You should talk with Mr Schaeuble”

Author: newsroom  | Published: June 16, 2014

“We understand the humanitarian crisis that Greece faces, but we do not make policy, you should talk with Germany,” said the president of ECB to Alexis Tsipras

The president of the main opposition party, SYRIZA, Alexis Tsipras came back from Frankfurt where he met the president of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi and appeared worried about the realistic possibilities of policy change that SYRIZA might have towards the lenders.

Mr Tsipras informed the political secretariat of his party last Thursday about his meeting with Draghi and appeared moderate regarding the expectations of a leftist government could have. SYRIZA’s members understood that nothing will be easy nor obvious if a left party governs the country, and that the European field remains extremely rugged and inhospitable for anyone wanting to change the imposed measures for tackling the economic crisis. Perhaps the leadership of SYRIZA realized that nothing can change in Europe if Merkel and Schaueble do not agree.

With this meeting with the head of ECB Mr Tsipras aimed to two things:

■ First, to send a message that SYRIZA is not a threat to Europe and the euro, that it has every good intention to discuss calmly with the institutions of the European Union about the Greek problem.

■ The second aim of his visit, however, which was the main one, was proved more difficult. Reportedly, Mr Tsipras and his colleagues expressed to Mr Draghi the views of SYRIZA on the huge humanitarian problem in Greece caused by the crisis and policies that have been implemented so far. They also expressed some of the ideas and actions that a leftist government could implement to face this problem as well as the general recession.

SYRIZA attempted to investigate the intentions of the ECB,if a SYRIZA government fails to fulfil precisely the memorandum requirements and forms another policy framework, instead.

The attitude and answers of Mr Draghi in all this were careful and polite, but had the following logic: that these are issues related mainly to political negotiation of the parties involved and the political decisions to be taken, so governments are those who have the first say. What Mr Draghi meant is that the political decisions are to be taken by Germany and specifically by Mr Schaeuble who has the overall command in handling the economic crisis.