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Give Greece another chance

The donors, perhaps, believe that Athens’s defiance should be punished — even at the cost of risking the Eurozone’s vitality.

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Greece’s festering debt problem has again come to head. As left-wing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras tries to mend fences with global finance leaders to avoid a default, ordinary Greeks have shown they are a gritty bunch. But the country has run out of cash. The tussle between the Syriza-led dispensation in Athens and the capitalist club in Brussels seems to be egocentric in essence. The donors, perhaps, believe that Athens’s defiance should be punished — even at the cost of risking the Eurozone’s vitality.

Despite the odds, Greece should be credited for keeping its cool. Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, should be lauded for undertaking difficult negotiations with paranoid lenders.

He has said that his country will not leave the Eurozone. He also made it clear that no new currency is on its radar. This negates Brussels’ propaganda that Athens has vested geostrategic interests and wants to align itself with Moscow.

The 28-member politico-economic bloc should be mindful of the fact that Greece cannot be pushed to the wall all the time. The system of subsidies on fuel and food items cannot be taken away with a stroke of pen. If not a blank cheque, Greece should at least be given its due political and economic space to stay afloat.

Athens is in dire need of around $200 billion to sail out of rough waters. That is why it went to the extent of asking for war reparations’ money to the tune of 279 billion euros. The country has reasons to make it work — for its people who have suffered enough for four years. International lenders must, therefore, give it another chance, or risk another recession in the Eurozone.

• OPINION