Tsipras uses ND, Brussels as bogeymen who will bring harsh austerity

By George Gilson

With the end of the pro-bailout and anti-bailout dilemma that SYRIZA used in 2015 to sweep to power, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras today brandished the threat of a return to austerity if main opposition conservative leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis comes to power.

Moreover, he declared that New Democracy's agenda has fueled fresh support in Brussels for the imposition of austerity measures on Greece and the rescinding of social benefits.

In brief, Tsipras is depicting ND and conservative forces in Brussels (he has made EPP Commission Presidency candidate Manfred Weber the poster boy for this) as dual villains, or partners in crime against the working class.

Tough conservatives vs. tender SYRIZA

Conservative austerity versus SYRIZA social benefits and relief for the vulnerable is the ruling party's new Manichaean political dilemma for voters.

However, it is so close to Tsipras' failed stratagem of having voters choose between SYRIZA, representing "the many", and New Democracy, representing "the few", which is to say the dread capitalist elite, that analysts say there is little reason to believe that a slight verbal makeover will do the trick this time.

Blasting Brussels

In an unusual move that came on the heels of yesterday' alarm bells in a European Commission report that warned of a potential fiscal derailment due to pre-election benefits and handouts announced by Tsipras, which will cost an estimated five billion euros over two years, the PM made a nationally televised statement in the courtyard  of his Maximos Mansion offices.

"A week before the European Parliament election and with full cognizance of the risk involved I told the Greek people the whole truth, that...

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