Editorial: Ithaca

The markets may not have danced to our tune, as the prime minister had once predicted they would.

Yet, the markets’ psychology remains fragile. In that regard, the European Commission’s document is illuminating. Not only do they not want to hear about a clean exit, they don’t even want to hear the word exit.

Creditors prefer the more neutral phrase “successful completion of the third programme, which would not send the wrong message to markets.

How is all this to be interpreted? It is quite simple. The triumph for which the government yearns, and the normalcy that the rest of us desire, is still quite a distance away.

The voyage to Ithaca is anything but over. Its continuation will not be a Homeric epic, but rather an economic and social drama, strewn with hybrid supervision programmes, memorandums that will not be called memorandums, oversight, trusteeship, and possibly a precautionary credit line.

If one thing has become clear during this eight-year crisis, it is that the Greek economy lacks the necessary depth to absorb shock and turbulence. It is too shallow to withstand any political game, or to bear on its shoulders communications strategies that are divorced from reality.

The reality – which no propagandistic rationale can ignore – is that the post-bailout programme environment will be even more unstable, and the much-touted end of memorandums cannot untie the hands of any government. The party that should take note above all is the government that is in power today.