Greek leftist rides anti-austerity wave to election
ATHENS |
(Reuters) - Greece will take years to get back on its feet unless it ditches the unbearable budget cuts in the latest EU/IMF rescue plan and instead focuses on achieving economic growth, said the leader of a small leftist party which is rising rapidly in opinion polls.
A mild-mannered lawyer who shuns the fiery rhetoric popular with his Greek political peers, Fotis Kouvelis has become an unexpected sensation before elections in April, with his Democratic Left party soaring to the No. 2 spot in most polls.
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But Kouvelis admits that the mainstream conservative and socialist parties - the only two that support Greece's bailout - will probably hold on to power, and plays down the chances of forming a left-wing government with other anti-rescue parties.
What Greece needs is not more austerity, but a plan to boost growth and pull itself out of recession, he told Reuters. Only this would allow the country to disconnect the life support of loans from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.
"If Greece does not enter a path of growth, I fear it will take Greece a long time to return to the markets, to stand on its feet," Kouvelis said in an interview at his spartan party headquarters in a gritty Athens neighbourhood.
The 63-year-old says Greece could have driven a harder bargain with its lenders, proposing alternatives to the cuts included in the 130-billion rescue package which European leaders signed off on earlier this week.
"Reality will show that these measures, apart from being unbearable for the Greek people, are also ineffective," he said at his office, decorated with potted olive trees and artworks, including an old French poster demanding "Liberty for Greece."
With an anti-bailout but pro-euro message, his party formed barely two years ago has tapped into anger over austerity demanded by the EU and IMF. Democratic Left has lured many disillusioned leftist voters away from the PASOK socialists, who share power with the conservatives in the current coalition.
Kouvelis spoke softly of a nation paying a heavy social price for a bailout with "dead-end" policies which have imposed repeated wage and pension cuts on the Greek people.
"The middle class is disappearing and unemployment has jumped," he said. "We should be careful that the economic crisis does not turn into a crisis in democracy."
Instead of relying on austerity, Kouvelis says the Greek crisis should be handled by having 60 percent of Greek debt transferred to the European Central Bank and issuing eurobonds, or joint bonds sold by euro zone member states.
Sceptics may argue that his ideas would win no favour with exasperated lenders who have little time for - and even lesser faith in - proposals put forward by Greek politicians.
But Kouvelis has found rising support among Greeks, partly due to a low-key, dignified persona that has set him apart from a political class viewed by voters as self-serving and corrupt.
Kouvelis came fourth in a GPO survey of who was best suited to be prime minister, while a separate poll found 56 percent of Greeks had a favourable opinion of him - ahead of all other Greek politicians.
FICKLE SOCIETY
With Greeks facing unemployment rates of over 20 percent, cuts in the minimum wage and higher taxes, anti-austerity rhetoric has pushed up the popularity of the Democratic Left and two other small leftist parties - the Communists and the Left Coalition, from which Kouvelis's group split in 2010.
Theoretically, the leftist parties could throw together a coalition, but they are riven by splits and ideological differences. Kouvelis ruled out any government of the left with the Communists (KKE) because of their hostility to the EU.
"KKE has made clear ... that it wants Greece to leave Europe, leave the euro zone and possibly to return to the old currency, the drachma," he said. "Therefore it is not possible to form a coalition government with KKE."
The rapid rise of the small leftist parties complicates the picture for the big, pro-bailout parties - which risk losing a combined majority if they slip further in the polls or if several small parties make it into parliament.
Kouvelis saw a possible renewal of the current coalition, given that the conservative New Democracy party is ahead in the polls and some analysts are forecasting a modest bounceback by
PASOK.
"My opinion is that there will be no majority government from these elections. No single party will be able to form a government. It is very possible that we will have a coalition government with New Democracy and PASOK," he said.
Much of the left-wing gains has been at the expense of the once-mighty PASOK, which swept to power in 2009 with nearly 44 percent of the vote but now polls around 8 percent. Most polls put Kouvelis's party firmly in second place behind the New Democracy, with as much as a 13 percent share of the vote.
Still, it is unclear how far Democratic Left's current popularity will translate into votes, and Kouvelis is cautious about predicting the post-election political landscape.
"There is no room for complacency, because I am well aware that society is very fickle," Kouvelis said. "But in any case I believe that to an important degree, the current poll findings will translate into similar election results."
Asked about his sudden surge in popularity, the avid reader of Greek poetry and jazz fan appears uncomfortable.
"I am the person least suited to explaining this," he said with a smile. "What I do know is that political intensity, the power of a stance or a proposal cannot be found in yelling, but in the content of what you have to say."
In the end, Greeks will be voting on not just austerity policies, but on the need for ethical politics, he said.
"Greece has great people, I believe in them," he said. "The politics of the last decades have insulted this nation."
(Additional reporting by Daphne Papadopoulou; editing by David Stamp)
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