THESSALONIKI, Greece, Sept. 6 (UPI) — Former Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is expected to announce new policy proposals in a speech Sunday night as he runs for re-election to office after he resigned in August in an effort to drum up support for new austerity measures he agreed to with European creditors.
Tsipras was elected prime minister in January on campaign promises to reject any new austerity measures, but when the Greek economy nearly collapsed, he abandoned the promise and agreed to a bailout package which included deeply unpopular tax increases and pension cuts. The move was made to prevent a forced national bankruptcy and exiting the European Union.
After months of grappling with creditors over Greece’s crippling debt issues, Tsipras agreed to the new austerity package in a turnaround from the previous manifesto he and the Syriza party had been elected to at the beginning of the year.
The package — deeply unpopular with most Syriza party members, including those who voted for it — includes several tax increases and further privatization of government projects.
The Syriza manifesto voters elected was built on intentions for the government to increase public spending, enact further tax cuts, and work toward labor protections meant to overturn measures enacted in recent years enacted to try to save the country’s economy.
Tsipras has said he intends to soften the edges of the austerity agreement, including scrapping a new 23 percent value-added tax on private education and rolling back privatization projects from an agreed to 23 to just 9 percent.
In recent days, the party has seen its poll numbers drop because of a split in the leftist Syriza party over the new austerity plan. The conservative New Democracy party, which helped to pass adoption of the new bailout into law, has made gains with Greek voters because of uncertainty about either party as both criticize the agreement they made.
“It is the first time in Greece that no one has the ownership of the bailout,” Wolfango Piccoli, a managing director at the political risk consultancy Teneo Intelligence, told the Wall Street Journal. “Even the creditors don’t back it vigorously; the International Monetary Fund hasn’t yet committed to take part in the bailout. This makes it very difficult to sell it to the public, as another round of austerity and pain is coming.”
The new election will be held Sept. 20, with questions about a coalition government being formed because of how close polls have gotten in recent days as Greeks continue to debate the newly-agreed to austerity plan.
