The ‘amateur’ who could destroy Europe

HE told the people to vote ‘no’ and they followed, despite the result being certain chaos. Has this man been vindicated?

HE’S the man whose dangerous gamble could bring down the entire European project decades in the making. But is Alexis Tsipras crazy or brilliant?

As Greeks stunned the world by voting ‘no’ to tough new bailout terms in a referendum that could spell the beginning of a chaotic exit from the euro, the radical left-wing prime minister has come under a barrage of criticism.

“Greece is the cradle of civilisation,” he told supporters at a rally calling on Greeks to vote ‘no’ before the overnight poll. “We won’t allow the technocrats of austerity to rape Europe again, and to take Europe away from us.”

Attacks on Mr Tsipras have grown more personal and more heated: “childish”, “impetuous”, “amateur”, “incompetent”, “infantile”, “impulsive”, “bipolar”, “reckless”, among many others.

His rants on Twitter, in which he accuses European leaders of “extortion”, “coercion” and “financial asphyxiation”, have not helped his image as a wrecker, concerned more with the fate of his motley leftist Syriza coalition than the Greek people.

Giorgos Chatzifotiadis, assisted by an employee and a policeman, sits on the ground outside a national bank branch, as pensioners (unseen) queue to withdraw their pensions. Picture: SAKIS MITROLIDIS

Nor have the former student communist leader’s constant backflips, “baffling” and “really annoying” mixed messages during negotiations with creditors, and frequently absurd public statements.

Last month, Mr Tsipras revealed that his wife, Betty Batziana, who is a fierce militant and even more left-wing than himself, would leave him if he agreed to a bailout deal.

In the days after calling the referendum, Mr Tsipras appeared to offer new compromises to creditors, only to go on television hours later to blast the “liars” and “blackmailers”.

Seen by supporters as a cunning strategist in his battle with European adversaries, and by detractors as an incompetent populist way out of his depth, no one quite knows what to make of the 40-year-old newcomer.

As Yale University’s David Patrikarakos argued, he could be seen as doing his best to juggle his own competing promises: to end austerity while also securing better terms from creditors.

“Who’s going to pull the snake out of the hole?” is a common Greek expression meaning “Which fool can I get to take a risk on my behalf?”, Patrikarakos explained.

Calling the referendum made sense, from a Greek perspective. “The creditors clearly weren’t going to compromise. He would fail to deliver on his promises to the Greek people and his party. He needed someone, preferably his entire country, to get the snake out of the hole,” Patrikarakos wrote.

A national Greek flag is seen during a demonstration on July 4, 2015 a day before nearly 10 million Greek voters take to the ballot booths. Picture: JOSE MANUEL RIBEIRO

While Mr Tsipras maintained to more than 25,000 supporters at yesterday’s rally that ‘no’ vote did not mean the country would have to leave the eurozone, the Greek people clearly don’t believe that, and neither do European leaders.

Greece on Tuesday made a last-minute proposal for another bailout worth nearly 30 billion euros ($43.87 billion) to follow the two rescue programs worth 240 billion euros ($355 billion) it has received since 2010. But eurozone countries declined to hold any more talks until the outcome of the referendum is clear.

“He didn’t have anywhere near the experience needed to get what he wanted [in negotiations],” one Greek parliamentarian told the UK’s Financial Times.

“He doesn’t understand the EU and so he doesn’t like it. But that works to his advantage: He thrives in constructive chaos because that is all he has ever known.”

Tsipras and his radical left-wing have stunned the Europeans with their tactics, explicitly threatening to bring down the entire eurozone unless creditors meet his demands.

Greek supporters in Barcelona showed solidarity for their European neighbours. Picture: LLUIS GENE / AFP

This “belligerent and erratic posturing” in which he has sought to use the threat of a Greek exit from the eurozone as extreme leverage in the negotiations has made it extremely difficult for creditors to make concessions, wrote Business Spectator’s Stephen Bartholomeusz.

After leading Syriza to an underwhelming 4.6 per cent vote in the 2009 elections, Tsipras faced opposition from within his own party, but managed to hold on to come back with 26.9 per cent vote in 2012.

Since coming to power in snap elections in January, Tsipras and his party have erased the benefits of five years of sacrifice by the Greek people, “right at a time when the economy was starting to recover”, as 246 Greek economics professors argue in an open letter calling for a ‘yes’ vote.

Tsipras is “deploying the kind of tactics that would shame student politicians”, the Financial Times wrote in a scathing editorial. “[Creditors] have made it perfectly clear that further debt relief will be on offer once Greece implements the lending conditions to which it says it agrees.

“This is a perfectly sensible attempt to reward good behaviour on the principle that you do not give treats to a misbehaving child.

“None of this is good enough for Syriza. Mr Tsipras is calling on the Greek people to vote against the offers made by the creditors in Sunday’s referendum, hoping that the terms will magically improve.”

Anti-austerity demonstrators spell out the word "OXI" meaning "NO" in Greek at a rally in Trafalgar Square in central London. Picture: JACK TAYLOR

And his bizarre interpretation of what constitutes a democratic mandate have infuriated European commentators. In an interview on Greek television last week, Mr Tsipras indicated that if Greeks voted ‘yes’, he would still not implement the bailout proposals, but argued a ‘no’ vote would give Athens a stronger hand in further negotiations.

“Thus, before voters have even gone to the polls, their inexperienced prime minister — who consistently refers to his popular mandate — has announced that he will not respect the will of the people in Sunday’s referendum, if it isn’t to his liking,” wrote Deutsche Welle’s Spiros Moskovou.

“On the other hand, should the Greeks vote as Tsipras hopes they will, he intends to use the referendum as a weapon against creditors in the ongoing negotiations that he himself walked out of last week.

“[By] all estimation, Alexis Tsipras, who has become a fateful figure for Greece and possibly the entire European Union, talks pure nonsense.”

The Greek MP who spoke to the Financial Times summed up Mr Tsipras in similar terms: “He is charming, good-looking and has a sound grasp of powerful messages. But he has no idea what he is doing.”