A “push-to-shove” between the newly elected Syriza leftist party in
Greece and the European Union (EU) has already started! And it seems
like the proverbial “The Tail Wag The Dog” analogy is in full swing in
Europe! That would have been unthinkable a few months ago as Germany has
been the “Alpha Dog” of the European Union Pack, and the rest of the
pack was supposed to comply submissively! But the newly elected Syriza
party in Greece begs to differ. The reason? Greece has been in recession
since 2010, and loans from the EU prevented the country from defaulting
on its foreign loans and government bonds. But the EU loans came with
strict austerity measures that caused a 5-year recession. The Syriza
party now vows to scrap the austerity measures, and that will undo the
EU planned Greek financial recovery.
Greece has been on a spree of borrow and spend recklessly since the early 1980′s election of the late prime minister Andreas Papandreou. His son as head of the PASOK party later continued the same borrow and spend policy, and the opposing New Democracy party followed suit to win elections. Both Greek parties passed out more freebies to win elections, and the Greek public debt sky-rocketed to 175% of the Gross National Product (GNP). When Greece applied for EU membership, it had to meet a requirement that it had to bring its National debt to 3% or less to qualify. Greece was accepted when it managed to bring it down to 2.9%! The 2.9% has sky-rocketed now to 175%. Greece, therefore, has sunk into a minus 172.1% financial hole since its entry into the EU. To bring its (GNP) vs Public Debt ratio down, the EU loaned Greece all it needed, and an additional $ 7 billions aid is in the pipeline to be disbursed to Greece in the summer of 2015 – but under strict EU austerity measures to force Greece to stick to the sighed loan protocols until its economy become self-sustained.
The various EU austerity measures forced on Greece have cut the excess and unnecessary spending in Greece – most of which was in the vast and loafing government bureaucracy. But cutting the waste in the government, and eliminating tens of thousands of loafing jobs shrank the Greek economy, unemployment boomed, and protests began. That was a bonanza for the leftist political party Syriza who promised to reverse or abandon the austerity measures. The Greeks, relishing the prior “borrow and spent” easy living voted for Syriza. Elections won, Syriza is now trying to push the Greek debt out of its repayment timelines, akin to the proverbial “Kick the can down the street,” and reduce it with “haircuts,” pay part only and debtors lose the rest! That is akin to making the Sisyphus boulder lighter, so Syriza can push it out of the Greek penury cave.
Yesterday, a Greek delegation arrived in Europe, and it was shown on DW (Germany’s Inte’l TV Broadcasting) meet EU officials. The Greek’s delegation leader, Finance minister Varoufakis was seen cockily telling EU officials “the signed by the previous Greek government austerity measures were scrapped; he wanted to re-negotiate them, and that EU inspectors due in Greece next month to verify Greece’s compliance won’t be allowed into Greece,” on quote! The Greek delegation didn’t look or behave like a group of diplomats. No smiles, brusque behavior, and more like gang-bangers trying to take over control of another neighborhood than diplomats on a sensitive mission! They threw the gauntlet as as soon as they sat on the table, and made it clear they were not there to “take no as an answer!” The meeting was outright hostile, and the German Foreign Minister told the press afterward that “the EU won’t be blackmailed” (by the Greeks)! It reminded me the late Soviet leader Nikita Krustchev taking out his shoe and hammering the U.N. pulpit in an explosive tirade against the West in 1956! But he was the leader of a superpower, not a bottom fish like Greece in the big European lake.
Would the EU play along? I doubt it. The EU is forcing fiscal discipline on its members to keep the Union fiscally balanced. That is why the Euro is more valuable than the U.S. dollar – about $ 1.3 dollars to a Euro. If the EU allows its member states to sink into massive debts, the Euro value will have the fate of the Russian “ruble” that has sank near junk status due to the Western sanctions on Russia over Ukraine. That is why the EU funds economically distressed EU states to keep them healthy and protect its currency. But EU also demands that its members stay within their GDP limits, and not borrow and spend recklessly money – unless that money increases their GDP output and create a surplus to pay the loans or bonds back. But don’t tell that to Greeks who for centuries have bragged that “Grab to eat, and steal to have!” is the smart way to live! Greeks also savor loafing at work and bragging about to portray themselves as “geniuses that live on the back of others” by doing nothing at work, and getting a paycheck! Now the austerity measures have cut off that easy living, and they have run to the Syriza party that promised to restore all the lost public jobs. The dispute between the EU and the Syriza Party now is, therefore, whether or not the EU will fund Syriza’s fiscally wild campaign promises.
The push to shove between Greece’s new green-foot politicians and the EU has started, and what became strikingly apparent at their first meeting was the inexperience and the lack of decorum by the Greek delegation. I bet that Syriza wants to impress its voters back home that it is as-tough-on the EU as it had promised them to be! That game might give Syriza some political capital with its supporters, but Syriza’s re-hiring of the fired by the austerity measures loafers in the government bureaucracy will empty the Greek Treasury faster, and the $ 7 billion Greece was expecting to receive from the EU this summer won’t be coming – after Greece’s banning the entry of EU inspectors to verify Greek compliance with the signed financial recovery protocols. Political capital will not only fade after the Greek cash registers are empty, but it will turn into protests as Greece may slide back into the former Greek currency, the Drahma.
A Greek poet predicted after the 1829 Greek liberation from Turkey that Greeks needed a master to force them to behave and live properly. Here is his stanza: “And the barbarians (the Turks) left. And now what are we going to do without barbarians?” True! Without the EU to play the barbarian, Greece will implode like Albania did in 1997! I see it coming! Let it be!
Nikos Retsos, retired professor
Greece has been on a spree of borrow and spend recklessly since the early 1980′s election of the late prime minister Andreas Papandreou. His son as head of the PASOK party later continued the same borrow and spend policy, and the opposing New Democracy party followed suit to win elections. Both Greek parties passed out more freebies to win elections, and the Greek public debt sky-rocketed to 175% of the Gross National Product (GNP). When Greece applied for EU membership, it had to meet a requirement that it had to bring its National debt to 3% or less to qualify. Greece was accepted when it managed to bring it down to 2.9%! The 2.9% has sky-rocketed now to 175%. Greece, therefore, has sunk into a minus 172.1% financial hole since its entry into the EU. To bring its (GNP) vs Public Debt ratio down, the EU loaned Greece all it needed, and an additional $ 7 billions aid is in the pipeline to be disbursed to Greece in the summer of 2015 – but under strict EU austerity measures to force Greece to stick to the sighed loan protocols until its economy become self-sustained.
The various EU austerity measures forced on Greece have cut the excess and unnecessary spending in Greece – most of which was in the vast and loafing government bureaucracy. But cutting the waste in the government, and eliminating tens of thousands of loafing jobs shrank the Greek economy, unemployment boomed, and protests began. That was a bonanza for the leftist political party Syriza who promised to reverse or abandon the austerity measures. The Greeks, relishing the prior “borrow and spent” easy living voted for Syriza. Elections won, Syriza is now trying to push the Greek debt out of its repayment timelines, akin to the proverbial “Kick the can down the street,” and reduce it with “haircuts,” pay part only and debtors lose the rest! That is akin to making the Sisyphus boulder lighter, so Syriza can push it out of the Greek penury cave.
Yesterday, a Greek delegation arrived in Europe, and it was shown on DW (Germany’s Inte’l TV Broadcasting) meet EU officials. The Greek’s delegation leader, Finance minister Varoufakis was seen cockily telling EU officials “the signed by the previous Greek government austerity measures were scrapped; he wanted to re-negotiate them, and that EU inspectors due in Greece next month to verify Greece’s compliance won’t be allowed into Greece,” on quote! The Greek delegation didn’t look or behave like a group of diplomats. No smiles, brusque behavior, and more like gang-bangers trying to take over control of another neighborhood than diplomats on a sensitive mission! They threw the gauntlet as as soon as they sat on the table, and made it clear they were not there to “take no as an answer!” The meeting was outright hostile, and the German Foreign Minister told the press afterward that “the EU won’t be blackmailed” (by the Greeks)! It reminded me the late Soviet leader Nikita Krustchev taking out his shoe and hammering the U.N. pulpit in an explosive tirade against the West in 1956! But he was the leader of a superpower, not a bottom fish like Greece in the big European lake.
Would the EU play along? I doubt it. The EU is forcing fiscal discipline on its members to keep the Union fiscally balanced. That is why the Euro is more valuable than the U.S. dollar – about $ 1.3 dollars to a Euro. If the EU allows its member states to sink into massive debts, the Euro value will have the fate of the Russian “ruble” that has sank near junk status due to the Western sanctions on Russia over Ukraine. That is why the EU funds economically distressed EU states to keep them healthy and protect its currency. But EU also demands that its members stay within their GDP limits, and not borrow and spend recklessly money – unless that money increases their GDP output and create a surplus to pay the loans or bonds back. But don’t tell that to Greeks who for centuries have bragged that “Grab to eat, and steal to have!” is the smart way to live! Greeks also savor loafing at work and bragging about to portray themselves as “geniuses that live on the back of others” by doing nothing at work, and getting a paycheck! Now the austerity measures have cut off that easy living, and they have run to the Syriza party that promised to restore all the lost public jobs. The dispute between the EU and the Syriza Party now is, therefore, whether or not the EU will fund Syriza’s fiscally wild campaign promises.
The push to shove between Greece’s new green-foot politicians and the EU has started, and what became strikingly apparent at their first meeting was the inexperience and the lack of decorum by the Greek delegation. I bet that Syriza wants to impress its voters back home that it is as-tough-on the EU as it had promised them to be! That game might give Syriza some political capital with its supporters, but Syriza’s re-hiring of the fired by the austerity measures loafers in the government bureaucracy will empty the Greek Treasury faster, and the $ 7 billion Greece was expecting to receive from the EU this summer won’t be coming – after Greece’s banning the entry of EU inspectors to verify Greek compliance with the signed financial recovery protocols. Political capital will not only fade after the Greek cash registers are empty, but it will turn into protests as Greece may slide back into the former Greek currency, the Drahma.
A Greek poet predicted after the 1829 Greek liberation from Turkey that Greeks needed a master to force them to behave and live properly. Here is his stanza: “And the barbarians (the Turks) left. And now what are we going to do without barbarians?” True! Without the EU to play the barbarian, Greece will implode like Albania did in 1997! I see it coming! Let it be!
Nikos Retsos, retired professor
