Ο Αντώνης Ζαΐρης, μεταξύ άλλων σημαντικών προσωπικοτήτων, έδωσε συνέντευξη στο περιοδικό Global Source Magazine αναφορικά με τη δύσκολη οικονομική θέση της Ελλάδας και τη συμφωνία της Κυβέρνησης.

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Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras may be inclined to identify with the Greek hero Hercules as he battles the many-headed hydra of the EU Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. But he’s more likely to remind Europeans of a lone French leader who kept returning to fight his exasperated continental neighbors, and for whom things didn’t end well 200 years ago at Waterloo. Julia Damianova reports for Global Sources Magazine on the pessimistic gloom in Athens.

IT should have come as a relief for the weary Greek people. After five months of strained wrangling across European capitals, new reform proposals put forward by the left-wing Syriza government were finally accepted as the basis for an agreement that could save the sick nation of Europe from slipping into deadly default on July 1st.

However – and there’s always a “however” in this long-running saga – it is still uncertain if the terms of the proposals will be approved by Syriza’s own parliamentarians, some of whom already proclaim that they veer sharply away from the party platform which won it the mandate of the electorate.

Since coming to office in late January, Tsipras has been wrangling with the dreaded European Troika – or should that be Hydra – the EU Commission, the Central Bank and the IMF. He has been trying to break the stranglehold of austerity imposed by Greece’s creditors in return for billions of euros in loans that enable the Greek economy to keep limping along within the Eurozone.

This week, on the brink of a €1.6 billion debt deadline and with the prospect of financial help fading, the Tsipras team finally produced a scheme Brussels is willing to consider. But the Greeks have spotted more austerity lurking within the plan and mutinous mutterings have been heard among Tsipras’ own Syriza troops.

The new proposals include higher taxes for society’s upper crust, they nip again at pensions and suggest higher contributions from employers and employees. The plan is problematic, but has been politely received in Europe for a change. If it makes it through this week’s emergency meetings, Tsipras must then face the angry streets of Athens and a fractious parliament amid fears that new austerities would further damage the already battered economy. The new Greek word for the country could become Chreos (debt) instead of Ellada (Greece).

“This is a very bad deal that imposes a dramatic burden on the private sector,” said Antonis Zairis, vice president of Greece’s retail enterprise association. The sentiment was echoed in a statement from the small manufacturers association: “The eagerly anticipated agreement appears to be based on a modified recessionary program that will extend the period of the economy’s contraction and weaken the country’s production capacity.”

They’re not the comforting noises Greeks want to hear when they envisage an end to austerity and suffering.

Proposed new tax measures include canceling preferential VAT rates for the Greek tourist islands, a 12 percent tax on corporate profits over €500,000 (down from €1 million), and a three percent hike in corporate income tax to 29 percent.

There are plans to collect €2.69 billion in revenues this year – about 1.5 percent of GDP – and the government now sets the 2016 revenue target at €5.21 billion, 2.9 percent of GDP.

“Greek governments in general, whatever their color, tend to take the easy way and not disturb established structures – just find the money to pay the same bills,” said Platon Tinios, a professor of economics at the University of Piraeus. “What that means is that you have the same people, who were paying taxes before, who now have more taxes to pay.”

Tsipras’ real trouble will most likely come not just from disgruntled taxpayers, but from his own colleagues. Even if he gets a pass from Brussels, he must still win in parliament.

The leader of the “Left Platform” of Syriza, Productive Reconstruction Minister Panayiotis Lafazanis, and about 30 other party deputies have always had serious doubts about any new agreements with the Troika. As debate over the new proposals takes root in Athens, more party rebels could emerge.

Last week, 49 of Syriza’s 149 parliamentarians demanded that the preliminary findings of a committee on Greek public debt should be discussed in a regular plenary session. The committee, headed by Zoi Konstantopoulou, who is parliamentary president and a party rival of Tsipras, determined that some public debt was illegal and therefore did not have to be repaid.

“The key issue is debt reduction,” said Yiorgos Kyritsis, editor of the Syriza party newspaper Avgi. “If this is not included in the final deal, it will be difficult to get everyone from Syriza to approve it.” Debt reduction is not included in the new proposals Brussels is now examining.

Should Tsipras fail to get full Syriza approval when a Brussels agreement comes to a vote, he might seek support from the socialist PASOK party or the centrist To Potami – or even the old nemesis, the conservative New Democracy, which Syriza ousted in the January election.

If Tsipras should lose his final battle, at least he has a choice of many lovely Greek islands for his exile. Napoleon was only offered one bleak rock.