From minimum wage to prescriptions, Alexis Tsipras is making good his promises to voters in startling fashionOne by one they were rolled back, blitzkrieg-style, mercilessly, ruthlessly, with rat-a-tat efficiency. First the barricades came down outside the Greek parliament. Then it was announced that privatisation schemes would be halted and pensions reinstated. And then came the news of the reintroduction of the €751 monthly minimum wage. And all before Greece’s new prime minister, the radical leftwinger Alexis Tsipras, had got his first cabinet meeting under way.After that, ministers announced more measures: the scrapping of fees for prescriptions and hospital visits, the restoration of collective work agreements, the rehiring of workers laid off in the public sector, the granting of citizenship to migrant children born and raised in Greece. On his first day in office – barely 48 hours after storming to power – Tsipras got to work. The biting austerity his Syriza party had fought so long to annul now belonged to the past for this was the beginning not of a new chapter, but a page, for the country long on the frontline of the euro crisis. Related: Alexis Tsipras begins rolling back Greek austerity policies Related: Yanis Varoufakis: maverick economist with Greece’s fate in his hands Continue reading...
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