Reuters — Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras headed to the Greek island of Ithaca on Tuesday in a gesture laden with classical symbolism as the country emerged from nine years of crisis and international financial bailouts.
“Ithaca will once again be identified with the end of a modern-day Odyssey (that was) very difficult for the Greek people,” he said after arriving on the island.
From a hill overlooking a bay in the island where Odysseus returned after a 10-year voyage recounted by classical poet Homer, Prime Minister Tsipras made a televised address to the nation announcing that the country had good reason to expect better days ahead after formally exiting its last financial bailout, putting an epilogue to a dramatic nine-year debt crisis. “Our country regains its right to shape its own future, Today a new day is dawning in our country, a historic day. The bailouts of recession, austerity, recession and social desertification are finally over” Mr Tsipras said.
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