A German Political Science lecturer at Harvard University, who has also been a Social Democratic Party (SPD) member since he was 13, has decided to resign.

SPD’s Yascha Mounk, became known in Germany due to a letter he sent to SPD chairman Sigmar Gabriel and published in German newspaper Die Zeit that listed all the reasons that led him to this decision.

The German academic wrote that SPD no longer relates to his personal beliefs and opinions, while adding that he was particularly bothered by the party’s attitude toward the Greek issue.

“The SPD’s short-sighted, nationalist policy toward Greece is the immediate trigger for my alienation from the party,” he wrote. “For weeks, the SPD has willingly participated in Germany’s self-righteous campaign against Greece. A social democratic policy would have meant fighting for the long-term interests of ordinary people in both Germany and Greece.”

“You bullied and lectured, telling Greeks to leech themselves to health by spending less. No matter that leading international economists have long called austerity part of the problem, not part of the solution. And no matter that the deal that has now been struck can—as even the IMF acknowledges—neither ensure that Greece will ever repay its debts, nor solve the Eurozone’s deep structural problems,” he added.



