After the elections in Greece with the victory of the far-left Syriza alliance, most politicians in Brussels were already irritated. But what the new Greek Prime Minister Tsipras announced shortly after his victory, probably topped the worst expectations.
The European Parliament President, the German Martin Schulz, was horrified. But others do not understand the fuss, like Fabio De Masi, German member of European Parliament (MEP) for the left German party “Die Linke”.
First scandal: The new Greek government announced that officials who had been dismissed in the wake of the austerity measures enforced by the Troika are to be brought back.
De Masi thinks this is not absurd at all, he told the German Euranet Plus partner AMS-NET.
These steps mainly concern, for instance, cleaning ladies, who had been sacked because of austerity, but whose retrenchment was illegal, as a Greek court had established, making way for their reinstatement.
He also mentioned the need for more tax auditors – for how is the Greek state supposed to collect the needed income without their help?
And there is the highly sensitive issue of sanctions against Russia. The EU has been consulting over new sanctions against Moscow for weeks – and promptly the new Greek government distanced itself from further threats against Russia.
Nearly all EU politicians demand that the EU must show unity in this conflict – De Masi just shrugged and pointed out that Syriza was basically just in line with the former Social-Democratic chancellor of Germany, Helmut Schmidt, who also called the sanctions counter-productive and a threat to legitimate security interests of Russia.
Not to mention the economic effects, even on the EU itself, which are also not to be underestimated, De Masi pointed out.
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Nach der Wahl in Griechenland mit dem Sieg des Linksbündnisses Syriza zeigt sich mancher Politiker in Brüssel etwas verschnupft. Doch was der neue Ministerpräsidenten Tsipras nun vom Stapel lässt, das hat die schlimmsten Erwartungen der meisten Politiker wohl doch noch getoppt. Der Präsident des Europaparlaments Martin Schulz zeigt sich entsetzt. Andere aber verstehen die ganze Aufregung nicht. Wie der Linke Europaabgeordnete Fabio De Masi.
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Martin Schulz ist entsetzt von Tsipras’ Plänen, der linke EU-Abgeordnete Fabio De Masi versteht die Aufregung nicht: http://t.co/kCH8rS6rXn
— EuranetplusDE (@EuranetplusDE) January 30, 2015
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