Financial Times
February 6, 2012
- Parachuted in by the great powers of the time
- Specifically, parachuted in by the great powers of the time to ensure Greek payment on their sizeable official loans
- Subordinating Greek sovereignty to a German budget commissioner
- Ordinary Greeks taxed to the hilt, but evading state control all the same
- Extremely poor relations with the Greek Church
- Domestic parties increasingly defined by their attitude to official creditors
- All told, generally sub-par “ownership” among public stakeholders in the adjustment programme, as the IMF would say
… And the clock slowly – but inexorably – running out for the foreign officials concentrated around the seat of power and attempting something, anything, to extract just that little bit more out of the Greek state’s archaic finances.
Still, Otto I of Greece (crowned 179 years ago today, February 6, in a grim echo of the current talks on Greece giving up sovereignty to a second bailout) had at least one advantage over modern parallels: despite his eventual ouster by an angry populace, he lasted a few decades longer than the Troika ever will.
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