Greece Making Demands of Germany?

For the past several years Germany has been making demands of severe financial austerity to both the Greek government and its citizenry as a part of the bailout program meant to assist Greece in recovering from its 2009 collapse. However, the Syriza party has won the most recent parliamentary elections, and their leader, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsiparas (a noted political firebrand), has promised to break free from German and European Union enforced austerity. Tsiparas and his Syriza party are part of a larger movement of ultra-leftist nationalist populist parties in Europe. Tsiparas and his regime have made calculations of what Germany owes them from World War II in hopes of receiving around 300 billion Euros from Germany. This amount is, not coincidentally, very close to the 240 billion Euros Greece received as a part of a bailout that saved Greece from bankruptcy. German Chancellor Angela Merkel insists that Germany made sufficient reparations in the 1960s and the 1990s, and it seems unlikely that Germany will make such reparation payments to Greece any time soon.

This is just the tip of the iceberg for Tsiparas and Syriza. I fully expect that Greece will begin the process of exiting the European Union bythe end of this year. While this might be empty demand from Greece, it is being used by Tsiparas to show the Greek people that the new regime is willing and able to stand up to Germany. This is especially disappointing as prior to Syriza's victory Greece was making progress towards making repayments on its bailout, and the E.U. had just introduced a quantitative easing program that was meant to stimulate the Greek economy. Furthermore, I worry that if Syriza is successful in breaking away from the E.U. they might encourage other nations to elect leftist nationalists, such as the Five Star Movement in Italy and Podemos in Spain, and in turn separate from the E.U. If multiple nations break from the E.U. the Union would collapse and lead to further economic uncertainty in Europe.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32202768