By Vassilis Kostoulas
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The current Greek government has entertained high expectations of mediation by the US administration towards European “paymaster” Germany, in order to lessen Berlin’s insistence on an austerity-based regime for the crisis-battered Greek economy -- as well as support for Athens’ standing request for immediate debt relief.
Under those circumstances, the surprise election victory of Donald Trump on Tuesday more-or-less dashed the Greek government’s short-term planning, given that Hillary Clinton will not succeed Barack Obama, and by extension, it’s unknown whether the current administration’s admittedly responsive stance vis-à-vis the Greek program will continue.
Moreover, next week’s official visit by Obama to Athens, replete with an address using the Acropolis as a backdrop, has essentially been rendered wholly symbolic, despite the protestations by the Tsipras government on Tuesday that the visit is substantive for its issues.
Turning to the new president-elect, Donald Trump has rarely referred to Greece during the campaign, possibly telling of the eccentric Republican’s approach, and even though the country’s economic problems and flirtation with “Grexit” dominated international headlines over the past few years.
"I'd stay back a little bit; I wouldn't get too involved," Trump told Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo in 2015. "Don't forget that the whole euro situation was created to compete against the United States. They put together a group of countries to beat the United States. Now Germany's very powerful, very strong. I'd let Germany handle it,” was one of the few quotes by Trump on Greece and its travails.
Nevertheless, he did use Greece as an example better avoided, linking what he claimed was the rival Democrats’ “tax and spend” policies with the reasons that tanked Greek state finances after 2009.
