By Y. Kampourakis
[email protected]
Greece’s leftist Greek government and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras appear bent on reacquiring the political initiative in the country ahead of the "final stretch" towards concluding the long-delayed second review of the Greek program.
The initiative, which aims to change the political agenda in the country, comes as certain “open issues” remain unresolved vis-à-vis creditors, such as debt relief, while the issue is of paramount importance to the coalition government’s own future, given results in all mainstream opinion polls over the recent period show its popularity collapsing.
An increasingly beleaguered Tsipras is reportedly ready to promote already "mature" major investment schemes in the country and even try to attract more investment interest, while at the same time reportedly telling associates that he’s ready to back “institutional changes”. The other, more “populist wild card” in the leftist-rightist government's "arsenal" is to point to a handful of major corruption probes by Parliamentary committees of inquiry - committees established by a majority vote in the legislature, i.e. by the 153 deputies (out of 300) that keep the government in power.
A high-profile Parliament probe into health care spending over much of the 1990s and through January 2015 – but not including the current government’s two years in power (2015-2017) – has been punctuated by selective leaks from the government side. Another “headline-grabbing” probe deals with weapons systems procurement completed under former PASOK party minister Yannos Papantoniou, who most recently was convicted of failing to properly report income and assets on a “statement of means” declaration. He was handed down a suspended sentence. Such a detailed listing of incomes and assets is obligatory for current and former ministers and other office-holders.
In a bid to further burnish his “international credentials”, Tsipras is again visiting China, this time in mid May. Various tours of ministries, meetings with regional governors and even a conferences of the heads of Greece’s 13 regions is being prepared, with the focus being on the decades-old modern Greek state’s fascination with “productive reconstruction”, i.e. in-depth structural changes on how the often dysfunctional – compared with top western models – Greek economy operates and produces.
