THE VOLATILE STATE OF POLITICS IN GREECE:

Greece had been facing a severe economic crisis in the last few years. It had been under deep debt crisis and had been struggling with bailouts for quite some years before 2018. Though the economic condition of Greece has improved much now, still there has not been full recovery. The current prime minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis has succeeded the great leader Alexis Tsipras on July 8th, 2019. Tsipras served the nation as a prime minister from 2015 to 2019. Under his leadership and guidance, Greece has affirmed maximum recovery from the situation of the debt crisis. A politician belonging to the Syrizan party (leftist), Tsipras has proved himself as a successful prime minister time and again.

What went wrong with Syriza in 2019 elections?

Syriza brought disappointment among many of its voters due to some decisions taken by the members of the party related to governance. The party had failed negotiations with the creditors of the Greek politics; it had issues about the signing and ratification of the third bailout plan and also an odd coalition with a small right-wing party. The taxing policy of Syriza had gained surplus funds that it had redistributed. But it could no longer chant “hope on its way” as it did for the elections in 2015. It reminded the citizens of Greece that the other party New Democracy was in rule just before the advent of the recent economic crises and austerity policies.

The advantage of New Democracy in the last elections:

The New Democracy party had the advantage of electing a new leader who was believed to be a liberal reformer. The victory of the New Democracy party has been achieved for the astute figure of Mitsotaki. Mitsotaki settled the issue of Greece with its northern neighbour about the latter’s name which was settled on the “Republic of Macedonia”. This was a very annoying issue for the Greek nationalists, and it was pulled off at ease by this right wing leader. New Democracy also showed optimism about bringing strong economic growth in the country. The previous government had failed to deal many issues like the one about North Macedonia, the deadly fires in Eastern Attica and also various laws and orders made by them. New Democracy was successful in convincing audiences of both the right and left wing.

Who does the new government consist of?

The new government formed by Mitsotaki consist of both internal party power relations as well as people of his own preference. The cabinet includes several technocrats who have not been members of parliament but are either of some business background or experienced international organizers. Though he has not appointed many women in his cabinet, but this is considered as a normal case by the Greek citizens. The ministry also consist of many candidates from PASOK, which was New Democracy’s former archrival party. For example, we have Michalis Chrisochoidis and Lina Mendoni, who served as government officials in the ministries of PASOK governments.

Future that awaits the new government:

The newly formed government has a lot of challenges in front of it. Greece has not yet fully recovered the economic crisis that it was going through. The new government had shown the people of Greece a new hope to bring strong economy in the country. The tenure ahead of Mitsotaki as prime minister will see whether the policies of lowering taxes and improving foreign trade will improve the financial condition of Greece. To begin with, the government needs to convince the European Union and specially members of the Eurogroup, to cut Greece some slack on fiscal targets. The future depends much on the global economic conditions.

The state of politics in Greece has been called volatile because of the sudden change of government that the citizens brought. The hold of the previous government went loose when it came to the belief of the people.