Germany’s approval of Greece’s third bailout of €86 billion on Wednesday marked what critics of austerity warn is a new phase in the ongoing economic crisis: the privatization of the country’s most valuable assets.
Under the terms of this latest agreement, Greece’s Syriza government—backtracking on some of its key campaign promises—agreed to sell-off €50 billion in state property.
In a letter to the Guardian published on Monday, Nick Dearden, director of the social justice organization Global Justice Now, charged that at this point in the crisis, “the purpose of the bailout has little to do with repaying debt and everything to do with creating a corporate paradise in the Mediterranean.”