Financial Times
June 5, 2012
It has become accepted wisdom that Alexis Tsipras, the leftwing Greek politician vying to become the country’s next prime minister, is a radical.
With good reason. Mr Tsipras’ party, Syriza, is formally known as the Coalition of the Radical Left. His campaign appearances feature homages to the revolutionary icon Che Guevara, and fiery speeches that rail against crooked bankers, corrupt politicians, the International Monetary Fund and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel.
What if the chief appeal of Syriza is not so much the promise of radical change but rather a return to the status quo – the days before Greece ran aground on the rocks of a debt crisis and became entangled with the EU and the IMF?
There are signs that Syriza may be just that. Take the campaign rhetoric. The message feathered beneath the accusations is one of comfort for a citizenry whose feelings of humiliation and embarrassment should not be underestimated: It was not your fault – it was theirs.
More telling was the much-touted presentation last Friday of the party’s plan to cure five years of recession and reshape the economy.
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