In the elections held on Sunday, the Greeks shrieked out in anguish, “Enough is enough! We simply cannot take this carnage any more!” The result was a sea change in the political party system that, combined with a sneakily unfair electoral law that gives an extra 50 out of the 300 seats in Parliament to the first party, made it impossible to form a government.

Nevertheless, the vote was clearly a demand that the economic straight jacket strangling the Greek economy to death should be removed. Since Monday there have been negotiations and posturing in an attempt to patch a government together, something that looks rather unlikely to happen. So the EU have got cross with us again.

How dare these sub human lazy slobs question our wisdom! How dare they! And on with the threats and terrorization. If you don’t comply with the programme completely (the one leading to a 5th year of recession, unemployment over 20% and growing, in short economic annihilation) then we shall cut off funds! You will starve, you will freeze and be turned into a sub Saharan failed state! If you don’t do as you are told!

Now, who exactly are they threatening this way? Since we don’t have a government, the aim is obviously to terrorize the people into voting as the EU wants them to in the rerun elections that seem likely. OR ELSE! Remember the EU idea of Democracy? We decide and you endorse! If you don’t we’ll keep you voting again and again till we grind down your resistance and you vote as you are told to. (Sort of Ceausescu Romanian elections.)

But just what is this terrifying OR ELSE we are being threatened with again? Quite simply, if you don’t do as you are told, you’ll be thrown out of the Euro! Now, it is well known that over 75% of the people of Greece, are in favour of the Euro. But as one wise man said on the radio this morning: I am in favour of my house and will do anything to keep it. However, when an earthquake strikes (and they do here in Greece) and everything is crashing down over my head, do I stay in my house or run for my life?

Like the gold standard, the Euro “at any cost” may no longer be an option. Particularly the way the EU functions now it has been hijacked by the German right.

So elections can still make a difference in The Frau’s Europe. We shall have to wait and see the outcome and whether the European Union and the Euro will survive after all. But at least the elections have shaken things up. Leaders are getting their collective knickers in a twist. All of a sudden Mr “Who are you?” (As EMP Nigel Farrange has called him) Herman Van Rompuy was galvanized into calling a Euro meeting to discuss growth! Of all things.

We are told in the Guardian article that Olli Rehn (The economics commissioner) has said  that the weekend’s elections in France and Greece have changed the face of European politics. And that this should be taken into account. The Chairman of the Bankers’ IIF Charles Dallara has said that there should be a shift in economic policy in Europe away from stringent austerity. Even Christine Lagarde of the IMF has mumbled cryptic remarks to this effect.

However, there are of course the loud and harsh voices of repression as well. The German official of the ECB threatening (or stating) that if Greece reneges on its commitments (to ruin its economy in exchange for money it then pays to the banks) it will be kicked out of the Euro. Or even our own friend Olli Rehn again. He is reported to have said that in the light of popular feeling we should ease up on austerity measures in countries struggling to meet their budget targets. But NOT in Greece. NO! Greece has to remain on the path of total destruction ruled by the troika.

Well, considering it was the vote in Greece that started shaking them up, this is a little disingenuous I would say. And considering that if Greece does go belly up in an utterly disorderly way, precisely because of the straight jacket forced on her by the troika, this will indeed cause shock wakes to hit the rest of the south and perhaps even further north in the EU, I can hardly call it very intelligent either.

Still, to cut a long and sorry story short, the democratic elections held in Europe over the weekend have managed to cause an earthquake. Of course The Frau and her ilk will be playing hardball to maintain the status quo of an EU hijacked and run by the German right. The Euro Commission will play along with whoever manages to be in the ascendant as it always does. Well, they have very cushy and totally unaccountable jobs. While the people start flexing their muscles and perhaps realising that they do have the power after all.

It remains to be seen. All we do know at the moment is that a tiny little country pushed to the extreme and still under constant threats and violence (in the form of being flung into poverty and despair for no reason other than “saving” the banks) has helped shake things up in Europe.

The man of the day being Alexis Tsipras leader of the SYRIZA party who dared say the people had voted the troika package of destruction null and void through the ballot box. Which is true. It remains to be seen how the message will be implemented if at all. Nevertheless, like another lively young man many years ago, he has certainly managed to shake things up!

In 1959 Peter Sellers starred (in all the roles) in a brilliant piece of satire called The Mouse That Roared.

For those of you too young to remember this gem of a film, it was about a tiny Medieval state whose economy was going down the tubes and found itself in possession of a deadly weapon, a new technological invention, alias for a lethal atom bomb. The plan was to invade the US, lose the war and obtain Marshall Aid funds to put the economy right.

Apart from Sellers’ brilliant performances and Kissinger spoof, the joke was that this tiny insignificant country could hold the whole world to ransom because it held this lethal weapon that would have devastating consequences were it to be used by the pip squeak state.

I just couldn’t help remembering this delightful film after the result of our general elections here in Greece. We do have a lethal weapon in our hands as the tiny insignificant little state with economic woes. However, the trouble with this kind of bargaining chip is that if you are pushed into actually using it, you get blown up too with all the rest.

Nevertheless, when you are pushed so far you say “The hell with it! If I have to go I’ll take them with me!” In fact one of the new left wing SYRIZA MPs, Yanis Drakasakis, said on TV yesterday, that a large chunk of their voters were not left wing at all. Many told him, we used to be afraid of the Left, because they would confiscate our houses. But Mr. Venizelos has already done this with his extortion tax on property linked to the electricity bill.

So, the inference, if we’re being blown out of the water by a cruel and utterly failed policy, then we’ll take you with us! We have nothing much left to lose.

All we need now is a Peter Sellers, in the guise of the very wily and highly successful British like Prime Minister.

One would like to hope so. Then again one would rather hope that ‘battle lines’ will not be needed and that Europe will come to its senses, prompted, hopefully, by the meager signs of democracy at work that have managed to slip through the cracks.

In France Sarkozy, the pejorative second bit of Merkozy and all the horror that that entails, was not reelected President of the French Republic. No doubt his utter servility and love of playing bully’s side kick in the school yard did not help his reelection.

In Greece the electorate exploded. As it was obvious that it would. How else would you expect an electorate to react after it has voted for a socialist government only to be treated to the worse kind of Chicago School ‘shock doctrine’ economics ever? Fifth year of recession accounting for an overall depletion of the economy of over 20%, soaring unemployment officially at 21% but real unemployment well over that. Decimation of what is left of the welfare state, enforced ‘flexibility’ of the labour market which has led to shark like behavior and so on.

Did Herr Wolfgang Schauble really believe that his threat of “elect the guys ruining your economy at our behest or else?” would really have any effect on a desperate, impoverished electorate? Back to Monty Python’s Life of Brian, “just how much worse?” (see 14th March entry http://parina.gr/blog/?paged=5)

But the point is not Greece or France but the whole of the European Union and the European idea. When democracy was allowed to speak it spoke in a very different voice from that of The Frau and her brainwaves for solving the European crisis. And for all the success of extremists from France’s Front National polling around 20% and the Greek neo Nazi party entering Parliament for the very first time, the electorates tried to convey sound economic sense. Something that is sorely lacking in the German Christian Democrat camp.

In his article, “Ex President Bling-Bling” Paul Krugman tells us: “The basic fact about Europe right now is that the strategy of adjustment through austerity and internal devaluation isn’t working, won’t work and is rapidly turning into a social and political disaster.” (my emphasis). Joseph Stiglitz has told us that Europe (under the iron fist of The Frau) is headed straight for suicide. But when the electorates endorse these conclusions, the Eurodirectorate petulantly refuses to budge.

That is, up until now. Perhaps the two elections will force a change of policy on the intransigent German inspired dictates of the IMF/troika. Francois Hollande appears to be a moderate person who wants to negotiate change. The Frau shrieks No! I will NOT renegotiate. But she has been reminded that Germany cannot decide unilaterally what Europe’s fate will be. (At least not under EU terms).

The Greeks are not turning red or going fascist out of some kind of perversion. The are crying out in desperation that this policy, so callously and, I have to say, with amateur shoddiness, imposed on them simply is not working!

The initial answer has been threats. Sarkozy threatened the French that if Hollande were to be elected France would turn into the next Greece. (He refrained from telling the electorate, however, that Greece has been reduced to a pulp because of his blind kow towing to The Frau, which was rather deceitful of him.) Schauble has threatened Greece that if we did not elect the right government, there would be dire consequences. The implication? That all funding will be cut off. Greece will default in the most disorderly way imaginable, the people will go hungry and start dying in droves, and in fact end up in even worse shape than when Hitler left them.

Okay. But does that really sound like the best way of solving Europe’s crisis? And does Herr Schauble really think that when he decides to consign Greece to such a hell on earth, the vacuum won’t be filled by others? Such as  a new Islam/ Ottoman drive (that reached Vienna last time around) for instance, or perhaps the Great Bear of Russia pushing up against the exposed vulnerable underbelly of Europe? Or at the very best an American protectorate slam in the middle of Europe’s eastern doorway? Well? These things, and worse, do happen you know when matters swing violently out of hand.

So perhaps the intransigent, intolerant Germans should remember that they are part of a Democratic Union with certain timeless Values, and not the Fourth Reich on the rise. Perhaps they should be the first to shy away from a concept of battle lines and sterile aggressive confrontation within Europe. God knows they have as much to lose as anyone if they don’t.

Germany is not The Frau. Germany has a strong SPD, Greens, even Pirates on the rise. So let us indeed hope that some sense will finally prevail and that it will not be battle lines but collective responsibility and some modicum of solidarity. Particularly with the states your own misguided and mismanaged policies led to ruin.

Our good friend and saviour, Wolfgang Schauble, currently German Minister of Finances, and the next Head of the Euro Group, as The Frau has decided unilaterally, struck out again! On the eve of the general election here in Greece, he openly threatened the Greek electorate that if they didn’t vote in the parties who have unconditionally surrendered to the appalling (and destructive) terms of the German dictated policy, we would bear the consequences!

Now I have wondered before, why on earth are they so desperate for us to vote in the political parties that Germany blames for not having implemented their policy correctly and who are, therefore, responsible for the implosion of the Greek economy? So exonerating, they believe, Germany’s responsibility for this great achievement. But such open threats on the eve of a general election?

He also added, in something that sounded like petulant pique, words to the effect that Greece could pull out of the EU altogether for all he cared. But it isn’t quite like that Herr Schauble, is it? You do care, otherwise why are you getting your knickers in such a twist over a tiny, second rate, insignificant backwater of a country like Greece, eh?

But it all comes down to “practice what you preach”. That is Flexibility!!! We are constantly being told (Mario Draghi the latest culprit) that the labour market must be made flexible! Meaning of course, that all and any workers rights should be abolished forthwith.

But, gentlemen and ladies of the Eurodirectorate, the criminally stringent austerity policies you are imposing dictatorially all over Europe to save the banks just isn’t working! As I have said before, if you keep this up and reduce the EU economy to a heap of rubble, so that the banks wont have to pay for the mess they made, then how are the banks going to survive without an economy to feed off? The banking sector is parasitical. It cannot survive without a large healthy beast to feed off you know. Or don’t you?

So flexibility. How about applying some of your own medicine to yourselves? European policy makers must become far more flexible not only in their policies but also in their approach. At the moment Germany is displaying such rigidity in both, that all that can happen is that there will be a big resounding snap. And punching the little weakling in the school yard (that is Greece on the eve of elections) will not help one iota! (That’s Greek too).

Rigidity may be good for goose stepping formations and the like, but when it comes to politics and economics, it never works.

Meanwhile, tomorrow France and Greece will vote in new governments. Whether they, in Greece that is, succumb to the threats or decide that when you are so far down there’s nothing left to lose, remains to be seen.

This is above all a battle for Democracy and the final count down has begun.

For a start, that is, because we are the ones voting for governments this Sunday.

And for those of you who feel this might be slightly blasphemous, remember the time honoured saying,

VOX POPULI VOX DEI

This time our votes really matter.

With unemployment growing dangerously in Europe and youth unemployment in particular (with something like 50% rates in Spain and Greece already) all Mario Draghi can say about it at his press conference is that the labour markets must be reformed. That is, they must be made more “flexible”, because it is the inflexibility of the labour market that is responsible for the young remaining out of work.

Okay. Yes! He has it! Fire all the middle aged workers who are already earning too much anyway and hire the young at pittance level salaries! There you are! Problem solved! All that is required is the abolition of labour rights altogether, so you can just sack anyone at will (without severance pay that is), and then hire anyone who will work for a piece of bread say.

But if you sack the middle aged work force in order to hire the young, at a slashed salary and no security at all, what happens to the middle aged workers? Won’t they be unemployed? Well. Yes. But you will have solved the youth unemployment problem. Won’t you?

There you are “structural reforms”! Another example of what the troika mean by that. Brilliant!

Oh, and when asked about the anger of the people suffering under the yolk of austerity, he is reported to have answered that he understands the anger but condemns any acts of violence in protest at the situation.

Well of course! The people mustn’t be violent for heavens’ sake! They mustn’t protest either really. But if they should dare to do so, they must not be allowed to be violent! No! They must bear the violence the assorted troikas and EU directives are inflicting on them, but dear me, they have no right to be violent. No right at all. Don’t they know that by now? They have no rights left at all!

Yes Signor Draghi, but might not that be precisely what makes his victims turn to violence? Anyway, this “I can kick you as much as I like but you mustn’t kick me back!” attitude is not very realistic. And it never has worked before in history either.

In an article entitled “Fix Your Own Mess” appearing in the Canadian Financial Post, Jim Flaherty, Canada’s Minister of Finance has spelled out some simple truths concerning the gross mishandling of the European crisis. I would add, in my own words, by arrogant and inept politicians.

I would single out three main points. Firstly that the European Union has ample resources to solve it’s problems, but would rather get others to pay. Secondly, that Europe is over represented at the IMF (34%), a point I myself also made recently, which skewers the vote in its favour. And thirdly that since the EU is seeking assistance from the IMF, then to remain fair, it is the IMF that should besetting the terms and not Europe itself with the troika of IMF/EU/ECB.

With regard to the first point, Mr Flaherty states that although it has adequate resources, the EU is unwilling to commit them to resolve the crisis. And he goes on to say: “…IMF loans are not an adequate substitute for a serious commitment by Eurozone countries to resolve the crisis…. “. Through unfair treatment, the Eurozone wishes to solve its crisis by spreading the risk to the rest of the world, while it alone benefits from high exports through price stability.

I would go even further than this. It is not the Eurozone countries benefiting from this scam, but the strong northern ones, primarily Germany itself, self ordained commissar who has cooked up this wizard scheme of “Heads I win, tails you lose”.

The analysis of how Germany benefited incredibly from the Euro by amassing surpluses from its exports to the south through the price stability produced by the Euro, which caused the deficits of these countries to grow immensely and unsustainably, is well known, so I will not go into it. However, taking the Greek so called “bail out” as the shining example of how Germany likes to deal with such matters, I would like to point out that it not only wants the lesser developed countries of the world to foot her bill, but also the weaker southern states of the Euro zone.

The billions of Euros being pumped through Greece in the bail out plan are not designed to help the Greek economy. Quite the contrary. From the first bail out package the vast majority of funds went directly to the foreign banks, primarily the German ones. From the second bail out package, not only is NOT ONE CENT destined for the Greek Economy but furthermore, all revenues from within the Greek state are to be held in an escrow fund to go to the banks as well! That is not only is the Greek economy not benefiting in any way from the bail out funds, but its own revenues are also being siphoned off to go to the northern European banks primarily. And adding insult to injury, the interest charged by the EU/ECB is far greater than that charged by the IMF.

Secondly, the great Helios scheme (or scam) whereby Greece will cover itself in solar energy panels and then export this energy to Germany and thereby solve its growth problem. Well, first of all, there is no way such energy can be exported at any sustainable cost. Secondly, this plan will not be funded by Germany but by the European Structural Funds Greece has not yet absorbed. And thirdly, but most importantly, Greece has been made to commit herself that she will only buy German solar panels for this hair brained investment, and not from any other country.

So another nice little earner for Germany. She will siphon off the structural funds earmarked for Greece, sell her panels and then not even buy the energy because it will be too expensive. And there are many other such commitments. Commitments for which our own politicians (and technocrat appointed PM) will have to answer for. The cries of treason being heard here in Greece, are not entirely populist bluster.

In short Germany does not want to fix her own mess. I say Germany, because, as the out going Jean Paul Junker also said, the European Commission is acting under German pressure. And as I have put it recently, Germany has hijacked the European Union and is bullying everyone into submission while it bleeds them dry through the brilliant blanket stringent austerity policy, in order to maintain her dominant position.

So obviously, going back to the EU’s expectations that the whole world should pay to fix the European mess (of German creation and the badly designed Euro for which she is also directly responsible), the rest of the world, Canada included, are perfectly right to say Nien! To The Frau’s expectation that she can get everyone else to pay while she alone benefits.

Enough!

And thank you Mr Flaherty for telling it like it is. I wish more heads of state would do so too.

Our good friend, Jean Paul Junker, Chairman of the Euro Group, is bowing out. Reportedly one of the reasons why, is that he couldn’t take The Frau’s pressure any more. On the other hand, he has nothing but the highest praise for Wolfgang Schauble, the German Minister of Finances, who The Frau has single handedly decreed, again,  is to succeed him. He is in fact quoted as having described this as “an ideal choice”.

I would like to think that this comment is the result of a real sense of sarcastic humour. Nevertheless, he is quite right. Since the European Union has been hijacked by the Germans, then surely, who better to chair the Euro Group? As I have said before, why not move all the Eurocracy directly to Berlin where it belongs? Fill all positions with Germans who can be trusted to do The Frau’s bidding, and consign Brussels to the back waters of Europe where it belongs?

Now, reportedly The Frau is none too happy with the possibility of Francois Hollande, being elected next President of France. She probably worries that he wont be as servile and malleable as his predecessor. Nevertheless she is convinced she will man handle him into submission too. And maybe she will.

But just to be on the safe side, she is cultivating a new side kick to fill her dear friend Nikolas’ shoes. Mario Monti.  Whoops! This one is probably even better in that he is the proper kind of thing she wants. A technocrat appointed by herself. None of this idiotic elected stuff. Perfect. He has already started squeezing the Italian economy and can be relied upon to reduce it to a Greek like pulp.

So Francois, if elected as the polls show, will have taken an enormous burden on his shoulders. How to combat the Rome/Berlin Axis, and save Europe from annihilation.

The Rome/Berlin Axis? European annihilation? The continent reduced to rubble through an unholy alliance between Rome and Berlin? Haven’t we heard that somewhere before? Oh dear, oh dear. Deja Vu shivers running up and down our spine.

Well, you know what they say. History repeats itself as farce. And the whole European project as abused by The Frau is nothing if not farcical. That is if you are not one of the growing many going hungry, for no reason, committing suicide, dying through lack of the medical care you have paid for but that has been denied to you, and so on.

Nevertheless, Francois, the way things are now. C’est la guerre! Or nothing.

“We  shall fight on the beaches […] we shall fight in the fields and on the streets […..] we shall never surrender.”*

At least if Francois Hollande is elected, we may start getting our alignments right. It may be the beginning of a meaningful resistance to The Frau’s strangulation of Europe through an unspeakable austerity sentence. Europe is being subjected to a brutal regime, that is leading to its utter destruction. First class passengers included!

Why?

*Excerpt from Churchill’s famous “We shall fight them on the beaches” speech to the House of Commons. June 4th 1940.