After two bailouts and five years of austerity, in 2014 the Greek economy showed the first signs of recovery, but the country was exhausted. 2015 was the year of open confrontation between a government elected against austerity and the European creditors.
SYRIZA wins
On 25 January 2015 the radical-left coalition SYRIZA, led by Alexis Tsipras, won the election with 36.3% and 149 seats, just short of a majority. Tsipras formed a government with the small sovereigntist right-wing Independent Greeks (ANEL). Finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, an economist with a leather jacket and a motorbike, became a global celebrity within days.
Months of negotiations
The government wanted an end to austerity and debt relief; the creditors, now called the "institutions" (Commission, ECB, IMF and the European Stability Mechanism), demanded that commitments be kept. Talks dragged on for months while deposits fled the banks and the state scraped together cash for wages and repayments.
- 26 JuneTsipras announces a referendum on the creditors' proposal.
- 29 JuneBanks close; capital controls start, with a €60 daily withdrawal limit.
- 30 JuneGreece misses an IMF payment: the first developed country in arrears with the Fund.
- 5 JulyThe referendum returns a "no" (ochi) of 61.3%.
- 6 JulyVaroufakis resigns; Euclid Tsakalotos replaces him.
- 13 JulyAfter an all-night summit in Brussels, Tsipras accepts a deal harsher than the one rejected in the referendum.
- 19 AugustThe third aid programme is approved, up to €86 billion from the European Stability Mechanism.
- 20 SeptemberTsipras, having lost his party's left wing, wins a snap election again.
The Grexit threat
In summer 2015 Grexit, Greece's exit from the euro, was openly discussed; German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble even proposed a temporary exit. Tsipras chose to stay in the euro and accept the deal, a decision many of his voters saw as betrayal and others as realism.
Until 2018
The third programme demanded new reforms: higher VAT, pension reform, a privatisation fund, high primary surpluses. In 2016 growth returned. On 20 August 2018 Greece formally exited the aid programmes, eight years after the first, though it remained under enhanced surveillance until 2022. In 2019 the last capital controls were lifted and Kyriakos Mitsotakis's New Democracy won the election.
Legacy
2015 left a deep mark on Greek and European politics: it exposed the limits of a single currency without shared crisis tools and helped strengthen the European Stability Mechanism. In Greece the ochi of the referendum joins that of 28 October 1940 in collective memory.
See also the 2009-2012 crisis, the European bailouts and the economy today.