"The question is whether the SYRIZA-Independent Greeks coalition will understand when it crosses the line that separates the past from the present, when the excuse that “the others were worse” no longer works and that they will be held responsible for whatever they do or do not do. Instead of bringing a new mentality and better procedures into public life, the government is rushing to control the state machinery, adopting the tactic which played a serious part in bringing disaster upon Greece. With the air of the new, uncorrupted party, it is keeping the failed system alive, causing new damage."
This commentary by Nikos Kostandaras of the Ekathimerini says it all!
This commentary by Nikos Kostandaras of the Ekathimerini says it all!
Konstandaras is a New Democracy stooge and a waste of time. he has nothing intelligent to offer about how Greece can improve its future under the yoke of Troika debt recovery priorities, and is no different from Samaras and the other crooks of ND who are responsible, along with Pasok, for the mess Greece is in.
ReplyDeleteI would agree with you in the sense that the tragedy of Greek politics is not SYRIZA (which is currently polling around 20%, I understand) but, instead, that the other 80% are incapable of presenting a reasonable alternative.
DeleteWith the same logic, Hollande who represents only 15% of the French people, needs to yield to Le Pen as representing a more reasonable alternative. Such logic is pure nonsense.
DeleteYou could say anything you want about Syriza/ANEL but the fact remains that all other major Greek political powers have been tested in the reform game and found to be b-type players and unfit for the job(and as a result rejected already). At least Syriza/ANEL are reformers with an ideological bias of course. So to declare Syriza/ANEL as below expectations one must have a replacement in mind. Based on what happened to Greece over the last 70 years it's a sure bet that ND and Pasok are finished as valid political political entities.
ReplyDeleteReplace "SYRIZA-Independent Greeks" with "PASOK/ND" government in the article and you got yourself the political history of 1974-today.
ReplyDelete"and you got yourself the political history of 1974-2014" to be precise. The sum total of 40 years of under accomplishment. What Kostandaras and Kathimerini (which has become the press office for New Democracy) don't understand is that their political party is now history never to return to power again except in a watered-down coalition full of compromise and restrictions.
DeleteAll said? Some of your readers seem to differ, so do I.
ReplyDeleteThe journalist does a bit of re-writing history.
Vandalism, "political" violence and general lawlessness going unpunished are not Syriza inventions. Greece generally practices it, be that demonstrators burning of bank employees, farmers shooting on their foreign workers or Golden Dawn raiding of foreigners street markets and killing of an antifascist rapper.
The Greeks did not vote for justice when they voted for Tsipras, they voted for a return to the money and privileges they had in 2009. It was offered to all and sundry, except for the oligarchs who would pay it. (Still weak on math?).
As a benefit he offered to restore the Greek pride, honor and dignity, that had allegedly been sullied by Europe's accusations that Greece had lied and cheated. The restoration should take the form of hundredths of billions of debt forgiveness. It was important the forgiveness was not negotiated "because we Greeks don't beg, we demand and take what is rightly ours".
Tsipras created a true "all inclusive" nationalist/populist party.
What will be his personal legacy when his legislation period is over? The Messiah? The gifted spin doctor? The man who changed the concept of democracy (the referendum) as much as did Goebbels? that and a lot of other persons.
The practical legacy is easier to predict.
Greece will be at least 10 years further away from economic recovery than when he started.
The recovery will be further hampered by domestic mistrust on a scale not seen since the civil war. It will prevent forming a functioning government.
The recovery (FDI) will be further hampered by international distrust. His last statement on the conclusion of the media tender show that he is hell bent on dragging Greece down with himself. "This sends a message to foreign investors that there are rules in this country... that governments will no longer be playing political games awarding projects". This at the end of an action that gave a licence to a pre-qualified contractor who get most of the Syriza government's contracts.
Lennard
Lennard:
DeleteHere are some simple rules that you could use to interpret Greece:
1. For as long as Greece uses the euro forget about FDI (except from other euro using countries which by definition are insignificant FDI players. God knows that Greece DOES NOT need more FDI from Germany and France which is destructive of asset value).
2. The eurozone has already imploded and there is no need to belong to this flawed club of diminishing returns.
3. As a maritime nation Greece has only commonality with the UK within the context of Europe. So, from a geopolitical view Greece needs to distance itself from Germany (i.e. the eastern European syndrome) and form a strong alliance with Israel, USA and UK.
All the rest is small talk about this that and the other and serves nothing but reinforce ideological bias which is useless in Europe.
Lennard
ReplyDeleteYou don't understand much about Greek politics, it's all in the family. Christos Kalogritsas has always been known as The Contractor of the Left, since all his old parea, or their sons, are in government he has become again preferred state contractor. He has strong tie with Nick Pappas and is also the one who bought Tsipras fathers construction company.He has been walking in and out of Maximos more times than most PMs.He is "best man" and "godfather" to a score of MPs and their children like infrastructure minister Christos Spirzis. A man of many talents, also best man and godfather of DefMin Panos "Blazing" and family. If you know anything about Greece it should tell you all to know that he is deeply involved in waste management and landfills. He will not get a TV channels, he owe so much in taxes that he can not explain where he would get the money, his son John-Vladimir will get the licence.
Isn't this the favorite Greek sport? To get the licenses and then resell them? The famous Eldorado Gold started with an insider Greek oligarchic family getting the license from an unsophisticated state for gold exploration for less than 30 Million. Then the Greek oligarch sold the same license for 130 Million to a foreign company which preceded El Dorado Gold. El Dorado said that there is about 2 Billion euros of gold deposits in Chalkidiki. So what is the logic of the state selling the original license for nothing and allowing intermediaries to make fortunes by producing nothing?
DeleteThe logic is that the state actors took kickbacks from the original sale, so it is not actually sold for such a low price. The unknown cost of all the kickbacks since 1832 is the source of all the riches of Greece's richest families: in plain language, they stole from the Greek people and country.
DeleteEvery Greek knows this, and not one person is interested to do anything about it. This is the systemic corruption of Greece, not this nonsense that the Germans are whining about concerning taxes. Moreover, all of these criminals are still engaged in politics at the highest levels, including the European Commission. The EU also does not care to investigate corruption and impose prison sentences on the criminals: instead they appoint them to highly paid jobs.
Europe is actually fucked -- by its political class. They are determined to drag us into third world status while they embezzle money and acquire personal riches. The Germans are as bad as the Greeks, in this regard.
Oh come on Klaus.
ReplyDeleteBy now only a blind person wouldn't notice the ominous black clouds in the horizon: Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen, Alternative für Deutschland, Austrian presidency, Brexit, Spain unable to elect a government, in Greece governments last no more than 1-2 years, True Finns, soon in Italy there'll be a government crisis etc etc etc.
It's convenient to pretend that all of this has to do with immigration, but that's not true. It has to do with the economy and the austerity policies that stupidly followed it. Nobody had a problem with immigrants before the 2008 crisis.
The Eurozone is done for, globalization is done for. Why do we still pretend that this is about Greece?
One can't blame the Germans for the fall of globalization, but one can certainly do so for the demise of the Eurozone. If they had let the ECB act like a proper central-bank in the beginning of the crisis then the bond markets and the banking system would have been saved, and capital flows within the union would have been restored. The crisis would have been benign. Instead the Germans got greedy and thought that the crisis was a good opportunity for them to buy out the rest of Europe.
They'll have plenty of time to lament the loss of the trade network that took them decades to build.
I am not sure I could disagree with what you are saying.
DeleteThe Germans have a long history of very bad political mistakes. They seem to be rather slow learners -- not too bright, but they have a very high opinion of their own abilities. Sadly, both history and the rest of the world do not concur. Equally, one could argue that the rest of the eurozone seem particularly dim-witted, because they support the German dunderheaded nonsense.
Delete@ Anonymous Sep 6, 9,52 AM.
ReplyDeleteI am well aware that I don't know enough about Greek politics, although there are times I feel I know too much. To understand it you must be born and brought up here, I read and listen, but that is only the surface. Your contribution prompted me to google the "Contractor of the Left", it pretty much verified what you wrote, he's a nasty piece of work. I am familiar with the garbage business, if you are in that, you get dirty hands, and I don't mean the collectors on the streets.
Since I was at it I googled another of the TV contenders, Evangelos Marinakis, quite another story, allegedly far right. Powerful shipping and business tycoon, since a year free on bail awaiting trials for:
-Setting up a criminal organization.
-Conspiring to rig football matches.
-Extortion and bribery.
-Instigating an explosion endangering human life.
To those saying Greeks only use hyperbole, he is charged with blowing up a bakery belonging to a football referee who would not play by Marinakis's rules.
It gives me the impression that there is no left or right ideology, only money and power. Further, that N. Pappas and Co. are reneging on their promise to deal a blow to "the triangle of corruption between politics, media and big business", even when they could. Or is it just that it is not possible to find 4 honest companies who would pay that sort of money? How would you, in the present economic situation, in an honest way, recover the fees they paid for the 10 year concessions?
Lennard
Lennard:
DeleteWe have much bigger problems in Europe and the West than Greece.
This is a systemic crisis. It is how major social problems are managed politically. Half still support the mainstream. Half support the upstart. The establishment can’t conceive of the upstart winning. The upstart doesn’t always win. But as the Brexit vote showed, sometimes it does. And then members of the establishment are shocked, realizing they don’t know anyone with views that oppose their own. And that is the core of the problem.
https://geopoliticalfutures.com/merkel-doesnt-blame-the-voter/
@Anonymous Sep 8, 1220 hours.
ReplyDeleteThat Europe has problems, and the Euro and parts of the EU will have to be dismantled is no surprise, and is welcomed by me. Please do not confuse these problems with the homegrown problems of Greece, they will continue to exist, and be greatly enhanced, after the (part) dismantling of Europe.
I assume you wrote the post about a possible alliance of Greece-USA-UK-Israel. Greece is not looking for alliance partners, She is looking for another, or additional donor, I doubt any of the mentioned nations will play that role. Should Greece genuinely seek an alliance, I can only recommend she advise them what she will bring to the table, how she will contribute, what value she could add to such an alliance.
Lennard
Here is a superb analysis of how much Alexis Tsipras' first months cost Greece:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.macropolis.gr/?i=portal.en.the-agora.6390