FROM DEBT WRITE-OFF TO DEBT RESTRUCTURING AND OTHER BROKEN PROMISES IN ONE EASY STEP

I am half-sceptical, half-optimistic of Syriza.

Half-sceptical because of the pro-Euro policy of Syriza, that they gave the defence ministry to hardline right wingers, and articles on Syriza on WSWS.

Half-optimistic because of the comments of Webster Tarpley.

Here is a comment on WSWS about what appears to be Syriza dumping its core aim of a write off of debt in favour of swapping and restructuring, and other broken promises.

The announcement by Greek Finance Minister Yannis Varoufakis that the new Syriza-led government will request a “debt swap” rather than a write-off of a large portion of Greece’s €315 billion foreign debt is further confirmation of the regime’s bourgeois character and capitalist programme.

...Syriza’s proposal repudiates the central plank of the Thessaloniki Programme on which the party was elected. The programme’s declared goal is to “write off the greater part of public debt’s nominal value so that it becomes sustainable in the context of a ‘European Debt Conference.’”

...The Financial Times commented that investors were “relieved that the Greek government seemed to be pushing for a restructuring of the debt it owes to the troika of state-level creditors, rather than that of private-sector creditors who already had their loans renegotiated in 2012.”

...On Sunday, Syriza Labour Minister Panos Skourletis said his party’s election promise to restore the minimum wage to its previous pre-austerity rate of €751 would be put on hold and implemented only gradually.

...In another retreat Monday, Varoufakis, referring to an earlier report that the privatisation of the strategic port of Piraeus would be halted, ruled out the “recall of privatisations which are due to be completed,” saying that would be “unwise.”

[source : Financial markets celebrate as Syriza repudiates pledge to write off Greek debt,, WSWS, http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/02/04/syri-f04.html, 4th February 2015]

Perhaps this is just real politik. Or maybe it has all been a big fat Greek con. We'll see in a few weeks time when the Greek debt has to be agreed.