As a Greek I am disgusted by this show of concerted bullying and intimidation of the Greek electorate. Even Hollande (whom Alexis Tsipras dubbed Hallnadreou) has also weighed in with a more diplomatic way of putting it, but basically reiterating Merkel’s message. Either you continue destroying your already collapsed economy or we throw you out of the Euro!
That was the message, if put in a more cowardly way, in that he said, not me guys, it’s the other bad guys, but if you don’t do as they demand we’ll kick you out of the Euro!
Perhaps all this bullying and threatening and intimidating will finally push the Greeks beyond fear. That is called overkill. Perhaps the Greek Electoral will say, Well go ahead! Throw us out of the Euro! Why don’t you?
And that is the question. Why are our dear friends, basically creditors, so hysterical about how we vote and if we self destruct? What does it matter to them? Why this insistence of either we do as they say or we’re out! They know there is no way the impossibly unrealistic terms of the memorandum will ever be kept, so why keep on whipping the dead horse?
At least The Frau, to her credit, is honest about it. We don’t care if the plan for Greece succeeds. All we care about is making an example of Greece, crushing her into a pulp so that no one else will ever dare disobey us again. Something like what Professor Yani Varoufakis has dubbed the workhouse effect. Make conditions so appalling that no one will ever want to go there.
At least she is being honest where “our friend” Hollande is not.
Quite simply put, the Greek experiment has failed abysmally. The whole plan was greatly flawed from the beginning. And, of course, the Papandreou/Papademos governments made a very bad thing worse. However, though the tyrannical troika was very good at threatening to withhold the next tranche and the next tranche, particularly when Papandreou suggested a referendum, they never tried to push the government into really implementing the necessary reforms. Why? Wasn’t that part of their job?
Another thing this brilliant Merkel troika has failed to realise is that when you push people beyond endurance they do tend to react, you know. So is it this reaction they want to stave off by threatening the Greek electorate? Sorry guys, but if you have managed to cow the Greek electorate then you have only put off such a reaction for a few months at most. And then it will be much worse.
Now, if all you need is a few months to settle your accounts so a Greek total collapse will not matter to you, you are again being stupid. Stop the threats and bullying, just smile and pull the rug from under Greece’s feet in a few months. No?
Well what then? What is your collective problem and why such jitters over the elections of a destroyed and destitute tiny little country?
Is it the possibility of a chain reaction? Is it The Markets? Is it your own cushy greedy little money making machines? Your lust for power, absolute power still better? Or what? Something or all of these. As if whatever little Greece votes in can make any difference. Probably the whole fuss is being made to set up a new scapegoat, or an Iphigenia* as I have said before. And in fact as John Osborne said out loud.
Good thinking perhaps. You must always blame someone else for the mess you’ve made. But then again, Greece is ripe and ready for the scapegoat role right now. Whatever she may vote. So again, why?
Regardless of the terrible fate that awaits Greece whatever she votes, the whole of the Euro system is set to collapse in a heap of toxic dust. Greece will make no difference. And just having a scapegoat for the disaster does not avert the disaster.
The problem, simply put, is The Frau’s obsession with force feeding her Nonsense Economics down the subservient European gullet. That is what is destroying Europe. Tout court, M. Hollande.
So unless The Frau’s Final Solution is replaced by a sensible and dynamic New Deal, the destruction of Euroland seems set to take place sooner rather than later. And whatever the hell the Greeks decide to vote on Sunday will not make one iota of difference to that!
See my 22nd May entry