Syriza’s apparent march to power – if recent polls are accurate – is bringing back the international media’s spotlight on its stance to the eurozone, with a hefty dose of scaremongering, critics say.
Several international analysts and strategists have not concealed their concern over the prospect of the left wing party taking office, saying it could have ‘dire implications for global market.’
But some of the analysis on the topic has been misleading and forged on erroneous premises as a recent report on Greece, by the CNBC financial news network, would suggest.
Speaking to the Future Now show, analyst Lawrence McDonald, head of US macro strategy at Newedge, and a co-author of New York Times best-seller, “A Colossal Failure of Common Sense,” said that “Syriza and the radicals clearly want to go back to drachma, they clearly want to exit the eurozone”.
This is false.
While it is true that radicals within Syriza, especially in the past, have on several occasions debated a Greek exit from the euro, the party’s official line has always been that it wants Greece to stick with the currency.
Alexis Tsipras remains a fierce critic of ‘anti-democratic neoliberal capitalism’ but insists he wants to reform the EU rather than tear it apart. and has repeatedly stated that he wants Greece to stay in eurozone.
Last week the party’s central committee voted down a motion tabled by party radicals of the Left Platform’ calling for state control of the recapitalized bank and the cancellation of previous privatizations. Tsipras has been meeting with European leaders and opening lines of communication with key figures in EU policy like Mario Draghi – up to the point that he has been accused of watering down his stance a tad too much.
McDonald also mentions that “snap election could be called in February and that would be a big problem for the ECB”. The host of the show calls that “a worst case scenario for Greece”, highlighting the complicated cause-and-effect relationship between democratic procedures and market reactions.