Ok, we were bullied and threatened and cajoled and ended up voting for precisely what The Frau wanted. The pro “bailout” austerity parties. They have agreed to form a government and the conservative prime minister has already been sworn in.
Has this made even a dent of difference to the Euro crisis and the underlying problems? Did anyone really ever believe it would?
Now we have just seen a tweet from Nouriel Roubini saying: “Berlusconi says ‘It isn’t blasphemous to exit the Euro’ signalling that he/his party & powerful business interests want to return to the Lira.”
Now when Alexis Tsipras said, in answer to a pressing question, “The Euro is not totemic [the word he used was fetish, but translates as totemic] and no currency can ever be sacrosanct.” The cries against the rabid rebel, the demagogue, the crazy wild man who wants to upset the apple cart went up.
I don’t think anyone could be as far removed from Alexis Tsipras than Berlusconi. So that ideas converging from the two diametrically opposed points of the political spectrum should not be dismissed. Not only is the Euro not sacrosanct, it appears to have failed miserably. That is if you are a southern European. It has worked admirably well for Germany. And is still working admirably well for her.
However, if The Frau continues to mismanage the crisis to her short term benefit she does risk a long term disaster. And not just for the rest of Europe but for Germany too. Hopes of perhaps staving off this imminent disaster seem to be fading fast. Particularly after the G20 meeting.
And the irony is that Greece was cajoled into voting for a government comprising all the worst elements of the failed system in order to stay in the Euro. That consideration alone tipped the balance of the very close vote. But since the Euro looks set very likely to be laid to rest altogether, we should demand reparations for having been saddled with all that is worst on the Greek political scene, simply for a chimera!