Ultra-gauchisme

Publié par Benoit Willot sur 1 Février 2015, 09:29am

Catégories : #international, #politique

Devons-nous avoir peur du programme d’extrême gauche de Syriza, le parti qui vient de prendre le pouvoir à Athènes ? Non, il ne vaut même pas le papier sur lequel il a été écrit – selon un des nouveaux dirigeants du pays !

Le texte ci-dessous (en anglais) est l’extrait d’une note de Yanis Varoufakis sur son blog. Elle date du 3 juin 2012, mais reste très actuelle. Depuis, Yanis Varoufakis est devenu ministre des finances dans le gouvernement de la Grèce conduit par Alexis Tsipras, le dirigeant de Syriza.

Dans ce texte (Why Europe should fear Fine Gael-like ‘reasonableness’ much, much more than it fears Syriza), Yanis Varoufakis soutient qu’il faut plus avoir peur des conservateurs (comme les Irlandais) que des soi-disant gauchistes. Il prétend que Syriza ne tiendra pas ses promesses (notamment celle de sortir de l’austérité) mais que ses économistes sont bons et modérés.

Je recopie ci-dessous in extenso le texte (en anglais, pour éviter les biais d’une traduction). C’est à mon sens un exemple remarquable du pragmatisme politique, qui n’exclut nullement une ambition réformatrice.

June 3, 2012 by yanisv

Should we be afraid of Syriza’s ‘ultra-leftism’? My answer is a resounding No. I recommend that (even those who have Greek amongst their languages) you do not read their manifesto. It is not worth the paper it is written on. While replete with good intentions, it is hort on detail, full of promises that cannot, and will not be fulfilled (the greatest one is that austerity will be cancelled), a hotchpotch of policies that are neither here nor there. Just ignore it. Syriza is a party that had to progress, within weeks, from a fringe political agglomeration struggling to get into Parliament (at around the 4% mark) to a major party that may have to form government in a few short weeks. It is, in important ways, a ‘work in progress’; and so is its unappetising Manifesto. No, the reason it is safe to take a gamble on Syriza is threefold:

First, because it is probably the only party that ‘gets it’; that understands (a) that Greece must stay in the Eurozone (despite the latter’s obvious failures), and (b) that the Eurozone will not survive unless someone forces Europe to put an immediate halt on this “march off the cliff of competitive austerity”.

Secondly, because the small team of political economists that will negotiate on Syriza’s behalf are good moderate people with a decent grasp of the grim reality that Greece and the Eurozone are facing (and, no, I am not part of that team – but I know the ones I am referring to).

Thirdly, because, in any case, a vote for Syriza is not going to establish a purely Syriza government. No party, including Syriza, will be in a position to form a government outright. So, the question is whether Europe is better off with a government in Athens which includes Syriza as a pivot or one which is supported by discredited pro-bailout parties, with Syriza leading from the opposition benches. I have no doubt whatsoever that Europe’s interests are best served by the first option.[1]

[1] On a humourful note, perhaps we can even enlist the Fiscal Compact as a reason to support a Syriza-based government! One of the Compact’s articles, after all, says that member-states agree to take the necessary actions and measures, which are essential to the good functioning of the euro area in pursuit of the objectives of fostering competitiveness, promoting employment, contributing further to the sustainability of public finances and reinforcing financial stability.” Well, all this, at least in my estimation, requires saying No to the ‘bailout’ logic and, thus, Yes to the Syriza’s line of argument…

Yanis Varoufakis