Scare-mongering dominates Greek electioneering

It was not the way Greeks thought they would spend their Christmas this year. Actually, many had already planned their holidays long ago. Judging from the record number of bookings, many had chosen to spend their Christmas at the popular winter resorts on the slopes of Mount Parnassus. The crisis is over, claimed the tour operators.

The reason why some Greeks were feeling somewhat less pessimistic this Christmas was based on the rhetoric of the Antonis Samaras government over the last three months. "We are about to turn the final corner," government politicians have been telling them. "We are coming out of the tunnel; we have achieved our financial targets; we do not need financial help from our creditors [the EU, the European Central Bank and the IMF]."

There were some positive signs, too. Some serious foreign investors were heading to Greece and certainly tourism had another record year. There was even an increase of 1.7 percent in employment, the highest among the 28 EU members, during the first three months of 2014 compared to the same period last year.

So, some had started to think that maybe the road of fully abiding by the tough reform program imposed by the creditors, albeit with extreme sacrifices on the part of the people, may have been the right one. And not the alternative, suggested by the leftist opposition of Syriza that claims the economy really needs good management with priority given to the lower income, to curbing corruption and political nepotism and caring for the many as opposed to a few.     

But the slight change of mood was more psychological rather than based on reality, as for the majority of citizens, the last five years meant a dramatic decrease of their income, living standards, health care,...