Neoliberalism

This is an important opportunity to redress the current situation, but many of the new emerging leaders are far-right demagogues who blame today's problems on social-welfare policies, migrants and the poor, while aiming to remove all remaining constraints on capital.

MPs were poised on Thursrday to approve the government's growth bill, which aims to lift obstacles to investment amid protests by workers who fear that the reforms will undermine labor rights.

The vote took place following a tense debate in the House during which opposition leaders took turns in condemning the legislation while a succession of ministers sought to defend it.

Even if the EU and its member states have the leadership skills to weather looming storms — from a US-China trade war to rising tensions in the Middle East — the reasons for Europe's recent travails should not be forgotten.

Only through self-reflection can the EU rejuvenate its standing in Europe and the rest of the world.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras pledged on Saturday to fight the "extreme right and neoliberal ideology," represented by opposition New Democracy and its leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis, through the creation of a "progressive alliance" of center-left forces.

In the pre-election period that Greece has entered, one hears plenty of grand declarations from politicians. Some, for instance, are about how to defeat neoliberalism, and others concern safeguarding the endangered European culture.

Alexis Tsipras has issued a call to arms "to all those who define themselves as belonging to the progressive wing and who recognize that the great issue of our age is to avert the rise of the extreme-right in Europe and also to deal with neoliberal choices and neoliberal policies." The prime minister's effort to give an ideological slant to the pre-election period is understandable, given that

The debate between "statists" and "neoliberals" has been going on for years as if we were in another country, as if the words "private," "public" and "state" had a distinct meaning here. In Greece, though, these labels are misleading, with the result that the discussion rages around theoretical constructs which have little relation to reality.

Ever since the advent of the neo-liberal agenda in the early 1980s, privatization has been presented as a panacea for all economic problems. Proponents have consistently talked about the benefits of reducing government size and personnel to ease the burden on national budgets and improve the overall economy.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras lashed out against the democratic shortcomings of the European Union on Tuesday, warning of an impending "intense battle" between the forces of extreme neoliberalism and extreme-right populism. 

Members of the self-styled anarchist group Rouvikonas walked into the Austrian embassy in Athens on Friday to protest the approval of a 12-hour working day by lawmakers in Vienna.

After they threw flyers, the members of the group left the building.