According to the New York Times, if you’re looking for an optimistic story in Europe, try Greece.
Opinion columnist for the publication, Roger Cohen notes, “Having lost a quarter of its economy in a devastating recession, Greece has turned the corner, its democracy intact, its extremist temptations defeated and its anti-Americanism defunct.”
He goes on to pointed out that the landslide election on Sunday of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, marked the end of a chapter. “Greece rejected Alexis Tsipras, the leftist leader who took the country to the brink of ruin in 2015 before discovering a pragmatic streak. It also voted the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn out of Parliament. At the height of the crisis, Golden Dawn had become the country’s third-largest party.”
“First into populism, Greece is now first out. For a country in free fall, the anchors of the European Union and NATO are not so negligible after all. Europe is not simply a story of growing nationalism and xenophobia. It’s a continent in violent flux, torn between liberal democratic and nativist currents.”
Cohen claims that Mitsotakis, who is a Harvard- and Stanford-educated former McKinsey man from one of Greece’s pre-eminent political families, had to overcome perceptions that he was too “American” and too technocratic in order to win the election.
Source: New York Times
RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations, Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
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