In a report on the upcoming Greek elections, an unbylined Friday afternoon Associated Press report dusted off words seldom seen in their dispatches, using the term "radical left" twice and the word "radical" separately once for good measure.
The almost never seen terms — virtually invisible in decades of descriptions of longtime radical leftists like Fidel Castro, the late Hugo Chavez or lefty legends like the late Che Guevera — appeared in describing the party and policies of Greece's Syriza party and its leader, Alexis Tsipras. Syriza and Tsipras appear to have winning momentum going into Sunday's balloting. Excerpts follow the jump:
Among other things, AP absurdly described a party and incumbent candidate who made peace with socialists as "conservative." Their defeat — and the end of supposed austerity which really isn't (more on that shortly) — is being presented as a desirable development (bolds are mine throughout this post):
AUSTERITY-BATTERED GREEKS FAVOR RADICAL LEFT BEFORE VOTE
The winds of political change are coursing through austerity-weary Greece, but a financial whirlwind may lurk round the corner.
Opinion polls ahead of Sunday's closely-watched national election agree: The radical left opposition Syriza party, which has vowed to rewrite the terms of Greece's international bailout, is poised to defeat Prime Minister Antonis Samaras' conservatives. To govern - in a historic first for the Greek left - it may need the backing of a smaller party, but most seem willing to oblige.
... Communist-rooted Syriza has alarmed markets and investors with its talk of massive debt forgiveness and riding roughshod over the bailout deals. But the mood is less fraught than in the last national election in 2012, when many saw a Syriza victory as a precursor to a possible Greek exit from the eurozone, the 19 nations that now share the euro currency.
For one, Greece's European partners are less exposed to fallout from a Greek financial collapse. The eurozone has a bailout fund and the European Central Bank has committed to buy the bonds of troubled countries, if needed. And despite erratic bombshells from some Syrizan officials - one candidate suggested printing euros if push comes to shove - the party is straining to play up its mainstream, Eurocentric aspects.
Still, Greece's next government faces an enormous to-do list. It must consolidate reforms, keep running balanced budgets, strengthen weak growth after a six-year recession, conclude frozen talks with bailout inspectors to secure a 7.2-billion-euro ($8.1 billion) loan tranche and negotiate further relief for its bloated, 320-billion-euro ($359 billion) debt.
Creditors insist Athens must honor its bailout commitments if it is to receive continued support. If things go wrong, Greece could again face default - despite its 240-billion-euro ($269 billion) bailout and years of belt-tightening - and find its eurozone membership untenable.
Samaras, whose New Democracy party governed since May 2012 in a coalition with its Socialist former archrivals, has promised some tax relief, saying economic growth and investment will gradually reduce unemployment. He was forced to call Sunday's vote to end an impasse over the election of Greece's new president.
Syriza's 40-year-old leader, Alexis Tsipras - a former Communist youth member - favors a radical approach: Writing off most of Greece's debt, a burden he describes as "not just unbearable, it objectively cannot be repaid."
When one sees the term "austerity," it's important to keep the following passage from David Malpass's May 2012 column in the Wall Street Journal in mind:
Economics has often ignored the critical distinction between austerity for the government and government-imposed austerity on the private sector. In the former, governments which are over-budget sell assets, restrain their hiring, and limit their mission to essentials. That's growth-oriented austerity.
In the private-sector version of austerity, governments impose new taxes and mandates on the private sector while maintaining their own personnel, salaries and pensions. That's the antigrowth version of austerity prevalent in Europe's austerity programs.
... The Greek government has been practicing a particularly aggressive form of antigrowth austerity.
So of course, it hasn't worked. And here we are, with a party even the normally reticent press freely and almost gleefully labels as "radical left." Everyone seems to be awaiting a Syriza victory so they can pronounce the death of "austerity" and "conservatism," when, as just noted, it won't do anything of the sort.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
