Well, Mr Samaras who is pretending to be PM of Greece has probably realised by now, that “everyone loves to be sucked up to but no one loves the sucker”, as it were. If anyone in Greece had any doubts about his utter ineptness and total lack of any political (let alone even tactical) sense, they can be in no doubt any longer.
In the run up to the election the terror campaign was: Don’t vote for Tsipras! We’ll be thrown out of the Euro! We shall go hungry if that happens! We shall have our noses cut off, our faces and our arms twisted into knots… and yes, all that. But what was it that Tsipras was going to do that would have been so devastating for Greece?
Well, armed as he would have been by a fresh mandate from the electorate he would have gone, not to the troika, of course, but straight to the leaders of Europe and said, we cannot carry out the Memorandum any more. It is null and void because we have already devastated our economy, seen no tangible results, and continuation thereof will only result in the total collapse of the country. We need to hammer out a new deal. A different deal.
What was Samaras answer to this? Shaking with cowardice he said, no, no, no, no!!! We couldn’t dare do that! They would only kick us straight out of the Euro! Quiver, quiver, quake, quake, we must not antagonise the beast in any way! We must do everything he asks of us! And since he is demanding our pound of flesh we must give him two just to keep on his right side!
This “policy” (or lack thereof) Samaras managed to label “regaining confidence” and the fellow either had the arrant cheek or outright foolishness, to claim that his “policy” was working! That the climate had changed in Europe! That we have now shown we can change! That we have regained their confidence! (The magical empty word he loves to bandy about, devoid of any meaning.)
Ha, ha, ha! Hollow laughter all around. He is right, though. The atmosphere towards Greece has changed. It has changed from bad to much worse. The troika have said it bluntly to their face. We have NO confidence in anything you propose! So either you do it our way and devastate your economy once and for all, or else… You won’t get your loan installment! Shiver shiver, quake quake.
Now, make no mistake, had Samaras been absolutely sure of a majority in Parliament, he would have nodded obsequiously and passed all the catastrophic measures through Parliament without a qualm. Just like Papademos and Venizelos did when agreeing to this lethal package, in the first place.
However, things have changed. No more absolute majorities in Parliament. And even worse for the “Leader”, having lead his party on anti Memorandum rhetoric for close to two years, a number of his own MPs that had actually taken him seriously, may not be trusted to vote blindly with him, like the PASOK MPS did with Papandreou.
So what is the talk? We cannot agree to these cuts, we just cannot push them through (that is their only problem, mind, being unable to push them through, not resisting their devastating consequences for the Greek Economy) so we shall have to go over the heads of the troika (oooou! My, my! Aren’t you being daring you bad boys you!) and talk to the leaders of Europe to agree on a political solution.
My goodness, Antoni, can you be serious? That is just about what Tsipras had planned to do which you dubbed anathema and tantamount to being thrown out of the Euro. But what Samaras is planning to do will not help matters at this stage, in that his whole tactical approach has been ruinous. Not only has he not regained anything of what he terms “confidence” but worse, he has made the Greek government utterly contemptible, perhaps even beneath contempt, and hardly in a position to discuss anything with anyone.
It is time, long overdue, that some kind of a state of emergency was declared in Greece (if this is not an emergency then what is?) and a serious government of a few uncorrupted, intelligent and capable people be formed, under the judiciary. Surely, now that the sh**t has really hit the fan with political cover ups of the tax dodgers hiding their loot in Switzerland, the other scandals now becoming more and more public, it is time for a radical change of course.
I have no doubt that such an emergency government of worthy people (as Kouvelis himself had said he wanted, only backed down on) would have no problem being given a vote of confidence in the present Parliament.
If something like this does not happen soon, that is in an orderly way, then we will collapse into complete disorder. A kind of disorder that could even lead to wild lynchings. A fact Mr Samaras and his fellow …. I am at a loss for words of what to call them, so his fellows, would do well to bear in mind.
Helicopters anyone?