Editorial: The price of imprudent politics

Great leaders often include a personal mea culpa in their political life, but the issue is what lessons are gleaned by such self-criticism and admissions and how people interpret them.

Angela Merkel is stepping down as German Chancellor. As we know, she said that the most difficult moment in her 16-year tenure Greece’s economic crisis was when she demanded too much from the Greek people.

Hence, the economic prescription was harsh or even wrong, as market players and the IMF have admitted in the past.

Yet this is not the real issue, as the bailout packages were intended to save Greece, and maintain its organic relationship with the EU, the Eurozone, and the European acquis.

Once again, the main issue as regards the outgoing Chancellor’s statement is Greece’s stance – how we reached over the years the point of being governed by imposed economic prescriptions and measures, often due to our own imprudent policies.

We destroyed our fiscal situation by choosing a skewed model of consumption and a dysfunctional structuring of the productive base.

Hence, Merkel’s statement should lead us collectively to a rethinking of what happened and not reflexive indignation, which often leads to extremes.

This is yet another opportunity to do so.