Thread by @GreekAnalyst

Terrible, terrible, terrible news from Greece. An unbelievable blow to the quality and independence of an exceptional independent watchdog of the Greek economy and state finances.

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by @nstamouli view original on Twitter

The Greek Parliamentary Budget Office, since its establishment in 2010, has been a provider of high-quality, independent, in-depth and hard-hitting reports on the Greek economy, government revenues and public sector finances - irrespective of the governing party in place.

With a small team, and largely thanks to the leadership of Prof. Panagiotis Liargovas, the PBO gradually became a trusted, transparent and rich source of information about Greece - for investors, public officials & academics alike. Everyone reads their quarterly/annual reports.

The exceptional value of the PBO, however, rests on a fundamental prerequisite: it’s independence from the political whims of the Greek government or party officials. This held true until today, thanks to the great work of former co-ordinator Prof. Liargovas and his team.

The independence of the PBO received its first ‘blow’ when PBO co-ordinator Liargovas’ term was not renewed by the Syriza-led govt at the end of Nov 2017. You see, Liargovas & the PBO had failed to affirm/support Tsipras govt’s select narrative; they preferred facts instead.

With Liargovas out of the picture, the Syriza-led govt unsurprisingly chose to discontinue the PBO’s independent & quality run. Today, it announced that its new head will be Syriza’s GenSec for Fiscal Policy Fragiskos Koutentakis - an obscure ideological academic & party figure.

As sad as this development is on its own, it nevertheless is part of a predictable - and ongoing - strategy of the Syriza-led govt to capture all key independent positions across the Greek state. This has succeeded to a very large extent with regards to the Greek justice system.

The Syriza-led govt has established a network of govt-friendly judges, led by a former Supreme Court Justice who now works as legal counselor in Tsipras’ office (!) - talk about “separation of powers.”

With help from friendly media, they’ve removed and derided judges and prosecutors that were not willing to advance their interests or tried to push back, while promoting people from their own group & advancing cases against Syriza’s political opponents with little to no evidence.

The Syriza govt has also used this dirty nexus of friendly mud-throwing media and friendly judges to attack central banker Yannis Stournaras and his wife, repeatedly in the past 3 years - another case of an independent institution (BoG) Syriza govt has actively tried to subvert.

And while the Syriza gov has been actively and unashamedly challenging the rule of law & independent institutions in the country, European officials have nothing but talked about the “amazing economic progress” in Greece (still, less than half any initial estimate for the year).

Greece is a *screaming* case of an authoritarian regime in the making. Brussels cannot point fingers to Poland or Hungary, and close its eyes when it comes to Greece, simply bc it does not want to unsettle the new “recovery narrative”. The EU should act now; before it’s too late.

.@AristidesHatzis on Syriza's takeover of #Greece's Parliamentary Budget Office: “This is a very problematic move — I’m afraid that Syriza wants to take control of this agency and that its future reporting on the economy will be less credible." ft.com/content/4f5181…