In 2015, Syriza, an anti-capitalist coalition in Greece led by Alexis Tsipras, was elected to oppose the severe austerity policies being imposed by the EU, international banks and the IMF to deal with the Greek financial crisis. 

However, Syriza's determination to carry out the public will collapsed overnight, dashing hopes, and condemning the country to four years of swingeing cuts and economic despair. Syriza became the agent of capitalist austerity policies, leading to the impoverishment of millions. 

As a consequence, in the Greek General Election held on July 7, the conservative New Democracy party led by Kyriakos Mitsotakis returned to office with an outright majority. 

Voter turnout was 57%, lowest since the end of military rule in 1974, surely reflecting general political disillusionment. The New Democracy vote rose from 28% to 40% while Syriza secured 32%, a decline of 3.5% compared to 2015. 

The small parties did poorly, although the former PASOK social democrats increased their share from 6.3% to 8%, while the Communists stayed at 5%. The new party known as MeRa25, set up by former Syriza finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, managed to cross the 3% vote threshold to win nine. Meanwhile, the neo-fascist Golden Dawn party failed completely.

Syriza was originally elected in 2015 to oppose the vicious austerity measures the Troika of the European Central Bank (ECB), the IMF, and the EU had imposed in return for "bailing out" debt-ridden Greek and foreign banks, and dealing with the mountain of government debt. 

Syriza initially resisted this move and sought a deal with EU leaders to avert the worst effects of austerity. When this was rejected, Tsipras called a referendum asking Greeks if they accepted or rejected the Troika austerity "memorandum."

Despite a massive propaganda campaign by pro-business media in Greece and internationally, the people voted "No" by a margin of 60-40. Yet, days later, the government ignored the people's vote and capitulated, ushering in four years of austerity and poverty.

The Syriza government attempted to implement every demand of the Troika. Pensions were slashed, public sector jobs slashed, wages frozen, State assets sold off, and taxes rose sharply. 

Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis resigned after the capitulation; and the left faction of Syriza split away – all to no avail. Syriza hoped and expected that the austerity measures imposed by the Troika, would eventually come to an end, economic growth would resume allowing some "fiscal space" for more government borrowing.

The first loans from the Troika were used to pay off the billions of Greek government debt held by French and German banks. The next loans made repayments for Greek bailouts to the IMF, the ECB and other governments. 

More debt was raised to pay off old debt. None of this money went to alleviating the suffering of the Greek people, whose living standards plummeted. The economy shrank by 30%, pensions and wages fell 40%; hundreds of thousands of young people emigrated, and public services and related jobs were decimated.  

And the biggest hit of all was to private sector jobs in tourism, industry and travel. Yet all these sacrifices failed to reverse a calamitous decline in output, employment and incomes.

Today, the ratio of government debt to GDP, remains at a staggering 180% and will stay there for the foreseeable future. Austerity measures did not cut the debt, which has been shifted onto government books and will be shouldered by the people for generations to come.

Now, the IMF and the ECB have been paid off, and the huge loans that the Greek government owes to the EU do not have to be repaid for a decade or more at a low interest rate. However, the Greek government must run a huge budget surplus if it is to cover future payments and interest, and obtain new loans from the global market.

The Syriza government thought European economic recovery would help Greece, creating the conditions to improve public services and raise pensions while still repaying creditors. However, Eurozone economic growth barely crept above 2% a year and is now slowing down again. 

In Greece, growth averaged little more than 1% a year under the Syriza government. Recently, after a short surge above 2%, it declined to 1.3%. And the new Conservative government takes over just as the Eurozone economies and much of the rest of the world face a slowdown in investment, trade and growth.

It was a New Democracy government that presided over the financial crash and recession back in 2010. Now, the program of the Mitsotakis government is to privatize, reduce taxes for the rich and encourage foreign investment, while keeping wages and pensions low and government services to a bare minimum. The aim is to boost the profitability of Greek capital in the hope of attracting private investment, which remains very much an unknown. 

Heiko Khoo is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://china.org.cn/opinion/heikokhoo.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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