Editorial: At a turtle’s pace

Not one, not two, but 88 preconditions for completing the third fiscal adjustment programme by August are up in the air, according to a report in Ta Nea.

Simple math shows us that one precondition must be implemented every day in order to complete the programme on schedule.

One would expect, therefore, that the government would move not only swiftly, but with leaps and bounds. Instead, it is moving at a turtle’s pace.

The reasons for this are easy to understand. One of them is purely psychological.

The current government displays the same unwillingness and fatigue that previous governments did in implementing the programme.

The difference is that previous governments were confronted with the so-called anti-memorandum front, which exerted enormous pressure on those in power.

The current government faces no such thing. Hence, there is no justification for its foot-dragging and fatigue.

Another critical, and more basic, cause is that the government continues to sacrifice the interests of the country for the sake of the political gains that it seeks.

Yet another reason is that it has lost track of the basic objective – which must be to lead the country out of the bailout memorandum – in order to devote itself to implementing a strategy of polarisation with the opposition.

The fourth reason is that the government is concocting ways to shift to the next government the political burden of the rise in the tax valuation of real estate and of the cut in tax-free income.

All these reasons explain why the country remains mired in crisis.