I was interviewed by The Press Project on Syriza’s economic programme for Greece. I said:
While there is much in Syriza’s programme that I don’t agree with, Alex Tsipras is right that Greece needs debt relief in order to recover and that the country should not be bled dry to pay off its foreign creditors. Where are the other voices demanding debt justice? Greece needs them. It’s a tragedy that Greece’s corrupt elites have collaborated with eurozone policymakers at the expense of ordinary Greeks who continue to suffer unnecessarily great hardship. And when new elections are called, Greeks should not be blackmailed by EU leaders into voting for Samaras again. If Angela Merkel was wise, she would make a make a virtue of a necessity and call a debt conference to write down Greece’s debts, as Germany’s were in 1953. Failing that, Greeks need to stand up for themselves and elect a government willing to threaten default on the EU loans, which were not a gesture of solidarity but a bailout of the French and German banks and investors that recklessly lent to Greece, and which are in any case unpayable.