Dixon: Time for Tsipras to keep his nerve

LONDON: Alexis Tsipras must keep his nerve. The new Greek prime minister has crossed a Rubiconinaskingforanextension to the country’s hated bailout programme while abandoning many election promises.

Tsipras should realise there is now no turning back.

But he can snatch victory from defeat if he embraces radical reforms with vigour.

Tsipras blinked on Friday night when it became clear that a bank run was gathering pace and capital controls would need to be imposed within days unless he did a deal with his eurozone creditors.

The government itself would have gone bust in weeks.

The misery inf licted on an already suffering people would have been terrible.

The Greek prime minister has had to accept virtually everything his creditors, led by Germany, demanded.

However, Athens did secure a potentiallyimportantconcession: it will be able to propose its own list of reforms.

On the other hand, Tsipras has had to swallow much bitter medicine.

Not only has he had to ask for an extension of the programme with monitoring by the unpopular European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund.

He has had to promise not to roll back the reforms introduced by previous governments or introduce any controversial measures of his own during the four-month period when he will conduct negotiations on a new long-term deal.

The U-turn will infuriate the powerful hard-left faction of Tsipras’ own Syriza party. But it is in the interests of the Greek people.

Tsipras now has to present his own list of reforms by Monday evening. He must resist any temptation to come up with half-hearted proposals that might appease his extremist colleagues.

Instead, Athens should propose radical reforms that the previous conservative-led government was too conf licted to embrace. It should surprise its eurozone partners with its zeal and so help to restore their trust, which has been shot to bits as a result of Syriza’s bizarre negotiating tactics over the past month.

Tsipras has long said he wants to combat tax evasion, corruption and special privileges, as well as rein in the oligarchs who control swaths of the economy and stifle enterprise. Now is his chance to prove he means business.

Top of Athens’ list should be creating a genuinely independent tax authority. The last government, led by Antonis Samaras, sacked the authority’s boss. Buttressing it with strong legal safeguards would show that Tsipras was serious about tackling evasion, one of Greece’s deepest problems. — Reuters