EVERY rational person in this country knows that cheap populism, opportunism and irresponsibility were the main contributing factors that led the state to bankruptcy. Even when the red warning lights were flashing, signalling the danger of the impending economic meltdown, the Christofias government chose to ignore them, sticking to its poisonous populist values, taking the troika for a ride and thus preparing the ground for the annihilation of the economy that followed.
This populism and irresponsibility was evident again immediately after the first Eurogroup meeting when the political parties rejected the first bailout deal, thus paving the way for the second and much worse agreement the effects of which will be felt for years. Faced with the consequences of their short-sighted populism – poverty, unemployment and business closures – we would have expected politicians to mend their ways and adopt a more measured approach to things, for the sake of the country.
The farcical goings-on at the legislature on Thursday, however, showed that the politics of irresponsibility are still going strong, at least among the despicable demagogues of the Left and in particular those of AKEL, the party that led us to our current predicament. The opportunistic communists decided to vote against the government bills for the restructuring of the co-ops and for their placement under the supervision of the Central Bank so they could pose as the defenders of the co-op movement. They even organised a demonstration of a few hundred followers, protesting against the bills, outside the legislature during the session.
The opportunist communists had calculated that the rest of the parties would approve the co-op bills while they could pose as the only party resisting the diktats of the troika and defending the co-op movement. Alas, the populists of EDEK also wanted to cash in on this heroic resistance and also voted against the two bills which, with the support of three independent deputies, were defeated.
Approval of the co-op bills was a condition for the release of the second tranche of financial assistance – the €1.5bn for the re-capitalisation of the co-ops. Without the money, the co-ops would have faced the dilemma of bankruptcy or the bail in of all its depositors. This would have been the comeuppance of the populist camp, but neither the government nor DISY were prepared to let it happen, penalising depositors in order to teach the rabble-rousers of the legislature a lesson.
AKEL and EDEK should be grateful that they were let off the hook by the responsible stance of the DISY leader, who insisted on another vote, and the finance minister who came up with a face-saving solution – changing a few words in the introduction, while leaving the provisions of the bills untouched. All parties backed the ‘new’ bills, AKEL claiming that the cosmetic changes made to them was a big triumph over the government, when in fact nothing had changed. The pantomime performed by the political charlatans of AKEL – appropriately described as brainless by the Archbishop – had to continue till the bitter end, yet the truth is that if they had their way, the co-ops would not have opened again.
The government avoided making an issue out of the opposition’s brinkmanship, content that all the bills had finally been approved. This was a mistake, because people need to be constantly reminded of the scale of AKEL’s ruthlessness and dishonesty. They need to understand that this is the enemy within, ready to destroy the country if it thinks this could win a few hundred more votes. Building the strength of the party, at any cost, is the only ideology of AKEL which was perfectly illustrated in the five years of the catastrophic Christofias presidency.
There are no moral scruples when pursuing this ideology. It will try to fool people as it did on Thursday, when it tried to win political points, in the belief that the other parties would act responsibly. Its calls for an exit from the euro are based on the same line of thinking – it knows the other parties would do everything to avoid such a disastrous path, but it is happy to exploit it.
The government and the parties that have begun to acknowledge the harm caused by populism have a duty to the country to expose and openly condemn AKEL’s poisonous populism and its ruthless attempts to deceive people. Open confrontation is the only way to stop the harm AKEL is doing to the country.
