Europe's Populist Left

[Sheilbh]

And if they want that back they'll have to drag it from my cold, dead hands.

[mongers]

Weren't you criticising him for being a closet Marxist a while back? 

I don't think so. I don't think he's closeted I always thought he was a Trot and proud, and I've always liked him. Though I think his style suits Channel 4 better than Newsnight.

Oops my bad. 

You're right, he fits in better with Channel 4.

Not sure how good a fit Fiasal Islam with the SkyNews agenda, he was rather good as 4's economic correspondent.

[Sheilbh]

Is Italy the only country in the world where it's okay for politicians to check their phone during a press conference?

[PJL]

All the evidence so far from what's happened since the Greek election seems to suggest that it's Merkel & Germany that are being populist rather than Syriza.

[Zanza]

And in terms of how much worse any other policy could have been, at that point until Draghi's 'whatever it takes' speech there would have been contagion unless the ECB intervened massively.

So your argument is that Merkel didn't have alternatives, only Draghi had? 

I think the other alternatives were trying to offer more support to reformist governments, as Varoufakis now says a bit of fiscal space to support the reform process. I don't think that was ever an option in Greece because I think Greece's biggest problem was endemic in their state and Syriza offer the first opportunity of changing that.

So not an alternative back then?

then the next weakest until at four in the morning in Brussels everyone agrees to y which is half-way to x.

It's called negotiations and compromise or short politics. What exactly is surprising about this? Germany has interests and thinks its interests are best served this way. I know you disagree about that, but your opinion is meaningless to how Germany sets its policy.

We ended up with bailouts, OMT, QE and the start of a banking union anyway it would have been better had those been constructed under less pressure.

Of course, but all of them less extreme than some people demanded. You may now say that's why they worked less than they could have, but first that's just conjecture and second, giving up too much under pressure for short term gains is something you might regret down the line as well. Germany should not and could not agree to sign away fiscal sovereignty to the degree that some of the discussed policies demanded.

[Zanza]

'We want to entrench and deepen structural reforms.'

Well, that can't be very hard considering their progress so far.

Sure. The problem of Greece is endemic to the system and now there's a party that isn't part of that system in charge.

And their first "reforms" were to reinstate some of the old rules...

"We are deeply committed to improvement."

How many parties of the 'radical left' have you heard talking about structural reform like that?

Maybe I am wrong, but all parties on the radical left talk about structural reforms. The more radical the party, the more radical the structural reform they have in mind usually. I am sure that KKE in Greece had even more "structural reforms" in mind than Syriza.

[Zanza]

All the evidence so far from what's happened since the Greek election seems to suggest that it's Merkel & Germany that are being populist rather than Syriza.

Wouldn't that require Merkel's policies to be popular in Germany? 

[Jacob]

Wouldn't that require Merkel's policies to be popular in Germany? 

Aren't they?

What is the popular sentiment in Germany on the subject, in your estimation?

[Ideologue]

"Work will make you debt-free."

[Martinus]

"Work will make you debt-free."

Edit: Asshole. I preferred this more before the edit.

[Ideologue]

I thought it was funnier as a pun, and I didn't know how to say "debt" in German.

[Sheilbh]

I'll return to this thread tomorrow. But shit kicking off

From the twitter account of the ECB's head of comms it looks like they did not expect that to be the interpretation in the media

[Duque de Bragança]

I thought it was funnier as a pun, and I didn't know how to say "debt" in German.

Schuld. It's a also a synonym of guilt in German. Make of that what you will.

[Martinus]

Talk about language shaping our perception.

I bet "debt" is synonymous with "gift" in Greek.

[Monoriu]

The character for debt in Chinese is written as a combination of two other characters - human, and responsibility.  So debt is one's responsibility.