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Financial Times: Tsipras from "Lenin of the Aegean" has become the "Darling" of the establishment

The Financial Times are urging Brits to learn lessons from the long, painful battle of Greece to exit the crisis, in the face of Brexit.

In his article, journalist Tony Barber describes the pressures that the Greek economy and the political system have undergone in all previous years, the abandonment of PASOK by voters and their move to SYRIZA which "having retreated from its radical experiment in power in the first half of 2015, is no longer an anti-system party but simply the natural replacement for Pasok ", but also the mutation of Alexis Tsipras "once feared in EU capitals as a kind of Lenin of the Aegean. Now he is a darling of the EU establishment but not only for swallowing his bailout medicine and helping to keep Greece inside the eurozone."

"The British government and people, still unable to settle on a definition of Brexit, can learn from Greece’s long, painful struggle. Some lessons offer grounds for hope. It turns out that a democratic political system and society can emerge, bruised but fundamentally intact, from the most severe of peacetime challenges. Other lessons, showing how an oddball nation on the edge of Europe can rediscover a constructive role for itself, may be less musical to Brexiters’ ears." the article notes.

AndTony Barber draws a flashback to the Greek crisis:

"Greece’s agony began in the closing months of 2009 when the newly elected government of George Papandreou, the centre-left prime minister, uncovered the terrible truth about the nation’s imploding public finances. In 2010 there began eight years of emergency bailouts, led by the EU and the IMF, and the transformation of Greece into a de facto protectorate of its creditors. The bailout era ended in August, but a surveillance regime is in place that requires strict adherence to fiscal discipline, ­economic reform and administrative overhaul in return for the creditors’ ­support."

The article describes the pressures that Greek society and the political system have undergone during the crisis, rising unemployment, the loss of a quarter of GDP, the emergence of Golden Dawn "from the shadows".

"Yet the worst never happened. Extremism did not prevail in Greece. Despite being on the frontline of Europe’s refugee and migrant crisis in 2015-2016, Greece did not spawn a major anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim party, unlike some other EU states. Golden Dawn never made significant inroads."

Having abandoned his extreme experiments in power in the first half of 2015, SYRIZA is no longer an antisystemic party, but PASOK's natural substitute. Stathis Kalyvas, a professor at All Souls College Oxford, says Greece is currently in a "post-populist policy" phase. In this sense, it precedes the European cycle. While other countries are confronted with variations of populism, Greece has already returned to a classic bipartisan system, where the moderate Left and the Right alternate in power. And this argument may be proved by next year's elections, where the opposition center-right New Democracy is the favorite to prevail.

Consider, too, the career of Alexis Tsipras," writes Tony Barber. "He was once feared in EU capitals as a kind of Lenin of the Aegean. Now he is a darling of the EU establishment but not only for swallowing his bailout medicine and helping to keep Greece inside the eurozone. He wins applause in EU capitals, and in Washington, for his statesmanlike initiative in trying to solve Greece’s name dispute with the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia. This is one of the most intractable, potentially dangerous disputes in the Balkans. Mr Tsipras is not only giving it a go but has shown that he is prepared to stand up to Russia, traditionally close to Greece, and even to expel Russian diplomats in order to keep a Macedonian settlement alive," notes Barber.

And the article concludes:

"In short, Greece is finding its way back to domestic stability and a secure place in the European order. The British ship, by contrast, is sailing away from the EU, though neither its disputatious crew nor its bemused passengers know where it is going."

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