All the damage was inflicted years ago by the corrupt régimes of Nea Demokratia and PASOK. It was caused by fraudulent submissions coached by Goldman Sachs and by the criminally-irresponsible and repeated blind-eyes turned by the ECB, IMF, EU and German, French and Dutch politicians who so desperately wished the creation of the Eurozone to cover as many nations as possible, whether or not it was appropriate.
Syriza has caused none of it.
Where I agree in principle, also on Syriza not having had any hand in bringing the state to where it wound up, I disagree on the no-responsibility take of Tzipras and Varoufakis in this current stalemate.
These two (and their minions) are beginning to make it sound like they got a call last Thursday, where the bank manager asked them to come in for a talk. To then tell them that their credit line has been canceled.
The main problem of the Greek people currently is that they're not being told the truth by their own. They weren't told it with the impossible promises made during the last election campaign, not with Syriza and associates getting elected and maintaining their stance that they could end austerity, and they're not being told it now with the delusion upheld that all will be well in the future, if only a nation of 11 million and of negligible economy will stand up to the 28 other EU states (inside or outside the currency) and their 500+ million people, a large part of who actually contribute to the coffers rather than taking from.
In this Tzipras and Co. are as prevaricating as all predecessors that profligated the country into its current state.
The sense and reason of imposing austerity on a nation that's already failing economically is another topic altogether, as is the issue of inviting in a country like Greece against all common fiscal sense in the first place..
But today where HERE and that's where the music plays.
This lamentable state has been going on for the past 5 years (as far as surfacing and addressing is concerned) and has gone completely South as of January this year.
Let's see if the Troika can salvage something from their monumental mismanagement of the negotiations.
By the latest count it's going to be a "duo". The IMF is unlikely to concern itself any further with a bunch of crooks that publicly declare not repaying any debt to it anymore.
If these latest negotiations were mismanaged (mainly) by the EU finance ministers (not the Troika), then I don't know what the heck to call Tzipras' and Souvlaki's antics. Because even "mismanagement" contains the word "manage".
I don't know enough people in Greece to get a representative picture but those I talk to are all going to vote "yes" (to Europe).
With Syriza getting 36+ pct of the vote in January on promises of what by now is clear they can't deliver, I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of Greeks go the "yes" route as well.
Even if Syriza got a bit more than Hitler in November 1932.
I hold the Greeks not to be so daft as not to know that "money for nothing and the chicks for free" is strictly something for the HIFI.