GREECE’S prime minister has chosen the home of mythical king Odysseus to declare the end of his country’s bailout era.
Alexis Tsipras made references to ancient legends as he said the country was returning to normality after austerity measures following economic collapse.
In choosing the western island of Ithaca, Tsipras harked back to one of the country’s legendary heroes from antiquity.
Odysseus was the mythical Mycenaean king whose arduous 10-year travels are immortalised in Homer’s Odyssey.
Tsipras said in a TV address Greece was ready to become a “normal” country again.
“Since 2010, Greece has undergone a modern Odyssey,” he said, in a speech heavy on Homeric allusions. “Ithaca is just the beginning.”
Tsipras said Greece has regained its financial freedom, after years of bowing to bailout creditors’ demands for cutbacks and reforms.
Tsipras’ address provided a reminder of the beginning of Greece’s crisis. In 2010, then-prime minister, George Papandreou, addressed the Greek people from the eastern Greek island of Kastellorizo, informing them that the country was bankrupt and needed financial help.
In return for the loans, successive governments imposed crippling cutbacks to right the country’s finances and balance budgets deeply in the red.
Over the bailout era, the Greek economy contracted by a quarter and unemployment swelled with one in five still out of work.
Incomes were repeatedly slashed and taxes hiked.
It has clearly been a hugely difficult and painful journey for Greece and one that has lasted almost as long as Odysseus’ legendary adventures.
In the past eight years, Greece avoided bankruptcy after getting loans worth €260 billion from the other countries that use the euro currency, and the International Monetary Fund.
Though Greece has turned a massive annual budget deficit into a sizeable surplus, further austerity measures remain on the horizon, with pension cuts to come.
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