aNewDomain — This is not what democracy looks like.
In January, Greek voters stunned Western political analysts by electing Alexis Tsipras of the self-proclaimed socialist Syriza party as prime minister in what was, by all accounts, a cri de coeur, as close to a primal scream as one can deliver via a voting booth: Enough! Enough austerity! Enough budget cuts! Enough hopelessness!
Syriza ran on a clear platform: No more kowtowing to Germany and the European Union. No more savaging of the social safety net.
Even if that meant leaving the Eurozone and reverting to the drachma, even if that meant currency devaluation and even more misery in the short run, Greeks said, they were willing to endure those sufferings to avoid more of the same: 25 percent unemployment, the sight of graduate students and once-elegant women scavenging food from wastebins.
Just over a week ago, Tsipras asked Greeks for a “No” vote on a referendum he called: No on austerity. No to debt slavery, euro-style. No. More. They gave him that vote, decisively.
But now here we are, watching Tsipras engaged in one of the most extreme sellouts of the modern political era.
Neil Irwin of The New York Times’ The Upshot writes:
In exchange for a cash lifeline, the country has agreed to much greater concessions than those that were under discussion a few weeks ago. Among them: higher taxes, cuts to government pensions and a sell-off of $55 billion worth of state assets in order to recapitalize banks and make debt payments. That last strategy is a little like a family selling off its furniture to make its mortgage payment; you can do it, but it does not exactly amount to a long-term solution.”
Details of the new loan terms still have to be negotiated, but the basics are clear: Things will get worse for Greeks — much worse than they are now. And that’s really, really bad — comparable to the grisly state of the U.S. at the peak of the Great Depression — all as the result of Tsipras’ sellout.
Reports USA Today:
One proposal floated in Brussels would require Greece to place $56 billion of state assets in an off-shore trust for liquidation, a huge sum that equals the value of every single thing the government owns … “
“I thought it couldn’t get worse, but the last week seems like it was designed specifically to humiliate my country. We are not without blame, but it seems as if nobody wants to reach an agreement with us. They want to embarrass us and punish us. When will it end?” asked Maria Scafidi, 29, a Greek tour guide.
This is what the seeds of revolution look like.
“By Wednesday, the country must promise to broaden its tax base to increase collections and reform its pension program, including raising the retirement age,” reports The Politico.
What is the point, from the standpoint of Greek voters, of electoral democracy, if elected “representatives” are elected with clear messages, reinforced by clear mandates delivered via referenda, who then ignore those popular directives when they feel squeezed by the so-called “great powers” in distant, fancy conference rooms?
If a national desire as clear-cut as that delivered by the Greek public — No. More. Austerity! — can be shrugged off just like that, it becomes clear that there is only one route left to effect real change: violence, revolution, violent revolution (which are one and the same).
No one knows what comes next.
But I know what’s unlikely: Greeks bending over and taking it. Google the phrase “Greece revolution” and you get more dates than you know what to choose from. The German-led European push for even worse austerity, the further gutting of pensions and seizing the nation’s public assets, including its municipal parks, would push even a nation of stoner losers to riot.
This being Greece, already past the breaking point, the safe bet is that nothing is safe.
“I’m relieved that Greece remains in the eurozone, but I still find the terms of the agreement offensive and full of the arrogance the rich and successful often have towards their poorer relations,” Pierre Haski of the French website Rue89 said after the deal was announced.
This is worse than arrogance. It’s hubris.
Not for the first time, the Germans have gone too far.
Not for the first time, their victims will pay first.
For aNewDomain, I’m Ted Rall.
Cover image:
“Alexis Tsipras on Subversive Festival” by Robert Crc – Subversive festival media. Licensed under FAL via Wikimedia Commons.
Inline image: “Alexis Tsipras3“ by Lorenzo Gaudenzi – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Don’t know if Tsipras did sell out. It looks to me more like he tried to get better terms by bluffing, but his bluff got called. Thing is, what is the real alternative here? Unilaterally leave the Eurozone and refuse to pay debts? Something tells me that might screw Greece harder than any kind of austerity in the long run.
At the end of the day it simply isn’t an independent country anymore. It’s a democracy alright, but its democratically elected government only has so much power vis a vis the European Union and banking system.