Due to this issue there is currently a new outburst of nationalist rhetoric in public discourse in Greece.  The common strategy of ‘Divide & Conquer’ is being employed in Balkans turning in this way the peoples of two countries against each other. In this act of ‘Macedonian’ drama, the showcase of national interest is misleading people in Greece in demonstrating against a created external common enemy, using as frontispiece the name of Macedonia. And because of this situation, people who are now resisting or just speaking publicly against this nationalistic rhetoric are being considered non-patriots or even traitors.

On the 21st of January, various nationalist groups in Greece managed to gather approximately 90.000 people (who came with buses from every part of the country) in Thessaloniki demanding the term ‘Macedonia’ not be included in the new name of the neighboring country. Under the exacerbated nationalism that has prevailed in the country, numerous far-right and fascist groups have taken advantage of this situation by attacking political squats and collectives that fight against state nationalism.  During that demonstration, these parastatal groups attacked the libertarian social collective of ‘EKX Sxoleio’ and afterwards they set fire to the anti-authoritarian squat of ‘Libertatia’. It is worth noting that these attacks were tolerated by the nearby police forces, a fact that shows once again the collaboration of fascists with the police and unmasks a government that claims to be ‘left’ and ‘in favor of people’.

The whole issue of the name of Macedonia works also as a disorienting pseudo-dilemma hiding the continuing harsh neoliberal attack against the rights of the people of both countries. At the same time that ‘national rallies for the name of Macedonia’ are organized in Greece, omnibus bills that extend the austerity policies are being voted in the parliament, auctions of primary residences (even of poor people) have started and the workers’ right to strike has been severely restricted.

It is also worth remembering that the political forces that present themselves as ‘patriotic’ by supporting the nationalist rallies and claiming that they ‘care’ about Greece:

• are the very ones that when they were in power promoted policies that were destructive for the natural environment of the country
• have sold natural resources and public companies to domestic or foreign private companies
• have violated every possible regulation to facilitate the disastrous (from an environmental and financial perspective) investment of the Canadian company El Dorado Gold in Skouries-Chalkidiki
• have taken decisive steps to commercialize and privatize drinking water in Thessaloniki.

We promote internationalism and class solidarity with Balkan people against the rise of nationalism and continuing neoliberal policies in both countries. Our belief is that people of both countries should fight against the degradation and exploitation of our lives by the neoliberal capitalist assault instead of demonstrating against each other. In fact, this is the only way to ensure a long-lasting peace in the region.

WE CONDEMN THE FASCIST ATTACKS ON RESISTING POLITICAL COLLECTIVES

WE STRUGGLE AGAINST NATIONALISM THAT CAPITALISM PROMOTES IN ALL COUNTRIES

30 January 2018

ReINFORM

Source of featured image: ThePressProject

By Leonidas Vatikiotis

The provocative intervention of the European Commission (indication of their great discomfort over the decision of the Court of Appeal), which continues to treat Greece as an occupied country without sovereign rights, was via the Commission’s spokesperson Annika Breidthardt, who invoked the independence of the statistical services. In essence, the mouthpiece of Brussels if anything she asked was the unaccountability of the Eurostats’ favorites, even at the expense of their country, as was repeatedly done by A. Georgiou. In addition, as rightly highlighted in the announcement of the Union of Judges and Prosecutors on August 3rd, the unequal treatment of the European Commission creates two classes of citizens. Narratives of creditors were reproduced by mainstream Press (FAZ, FT, Politico, Bloomberg, et. al.) which appeared A. Georgiou, who now lives in Maryland, as a victim.

Needless to say, that the venal and loafer bureaucracy of Brussels would have never reached the point of showing its teeth by interfering with such frequency, if the so-called left-wing government of SYRIZA (which governs with the extreme-right party of ANEL) had not given them the right. Going as far as to accept in the prerequisites of the last instalment, the acquittal of A. Georgiou (proof of the inability of his acquittal through the lawful way), as well as paying his legal costs (just for humiliating them), the message sent out by the government is that the rule of law will have the fate of the welfare state: sacrificed at the altar of Memoranda!

The judgement of the Court of Appeal may once again have angered the parasites in Brussels, but it abstained from the proposal of the Prosecutor, Mr. Lambros Patsavellas, who, in his speech, asked for the conviction of Georgiou for all three offences, which did not concern the data falsification, as this will be trialled in the Criminal Court.

Specifically, the former President of ELSTAT, A. Georgiou, was accused of the following: First, because he simultaneously occupied two critical posts (one as a President of ELSTAT and another as deputy division chief in the IMF) – for this he was acquitted. Secondly, because he did not call for the BoD meetings – for this he was acquitted. And, thirdly, because he sent the 2009 deficit figures all by himself, without ELSTAT taking knowledge – for this, he was found guilty. The contradicting fact that he was acquitted for not calling for the BoD and then convicted because he sent the data to Eurostat by himself (because he did not call for the BoD to approve them!), is utterly blatant!

Let take a look one by one the above mentioned accusations. 

Servant of Two Masters!

The position of the President of ELSTAT is a dedicated full-time position (as provided by article 15, par. 1, sentence b of the 3832/2010 law). However, when on June 29, 2010, A. Georgiou passed by the approval of the Conference of Presidents of the Greek Parliament, he concealed that he had not resigned from the IMF but had taken an unpaid leave. His direct dependency on the IMF was apparent on the e-mail he sent to the representative of IMF in Greece, Paul Thomsen, urging him to intervene on the government, via Brussels, in order to change the law on the statistical service.

Georgiou, concealed his professional relationship with the IMF because if made known, he could not even be a mere member of the Board, as the only parallel position allowed, is that of a faculty member at a University. However, Georgiou, is not a professor! He is not even a statistical scientist, since he has no relevant studies. Even at the IMF, he was not working as a statistician, but as a simple economist. It seems, that in the case of statisticians there is a constant tradition which was first pointed out by the American economist and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz: The IMF, recruits, second and third-class scientists to make the dirty job.

Georgiou was concealing the truth that he serves two Masters for more than a year (from July 2010 to September 2011). Thus, along with the position of President of ELSTAT he also held the post of Deputy Chief of the IMF Statistical Service, where admittedly resigned on July 16, 2010, but he only put in into effect on November 10, 2010. The fraud was uncovered by MPs and journalists, so Georgiou had to admit it. Even then, he pretended the naive, stating that he did it in order to secure his pension. The question which subsequently arises is why didn’t he wait until November 10, 2011, to complete his pensionable years at the IMF and then move to Greece? Obviously, his highly lucrative relationship of dependency with the IMF served the hateful organization who wanted to have its own people in key positions in Greece…

What if there was an evident conflict of interest between lender and borrower? A contradiction which was also described by the prosecutor himself, who in the end was applauded by dozens of ordinary people who had flooded the Court of Appeals to watch the trial …

For the offense of holding simultaneously two positions, the Court of Appeal decided that Georgiou is innocent.

ELSTAT, One Man’s Principle

From November 2010 to September 2011, Georgiou refused to convene a meeting between the other 6 members of ELSTAT (N. Logothetis, G. Georgantas, A. Philippou, G. Simiyiannis, St. Balfousia and K. Skordas) who consisted the seven-member collegial body of the independent Authority.

In order to leave no doubt regarding the motives of the BoD members we should state that (according to article 12 of law 3832 / 9.3.2010) its seven members are defined as follows: Four members (of which one is appointed as chairman and another as vice-chairman) are elected by the Presidents of the Parliament, on the recommendation of the Minister of Finance, following a public notice by a majority of 4/5 of its members. One member is nominated by the Governor of the Bank of Greece, one member by the Minister of Finance and another member by the Workers’ Association. As a result, they were not representatives of the protestors of Syntagma square, nor representatives of grass-roots unions … Thus, Georgiou, acted behind their back, as his illegalities were so blatant that they could not be accepted by employees who did not have the psychology of a gauleiter nor of a man in special mission who knows that whatever his actions may-be, his contractors, will cover for him.

His argument, that there was no trust between the members, and that is why Georgiou did it all by himself, was overturned by the prosecutor, who argued that if Georgiou did not trust them, he could entrust the vice-president to convene a BoD. So, why didn’t he request it from N. Logothetis?

Georgiou (who never missed a chance to insult Greece) to further strengthen his position he was issuing press releases in Greek and English. In these press releases the Board members were being presented as politically animated, with unionist-like and “abnormal” behaviour!

For the offence of the non-convergence of the BoD, the Court of Appeal decided that Georgiou was innocent.

Guilty of the 2009 Deficit

Of particular importance, however, is the decision of the three-member Court of Appeal, to convict Georgiou in two years’ imprisonment, with a three-year suspension, for the irregular transmission of the 2009 data of budget deficit. This decision angered the creditors and the neoliberal establishment in Greece. In particular, A. Georgiou he was convicted because he did not put into account ELSTAT as a collective body and because the latter did not consent on the transmission of the data, in violation of Article 10, par. 2(f) I of Law 3832/2010. More specifically, it states that “ELSTAT in particular: a. Prepares and executes the annual statistical program and produces and publishes with the status of the “national statistical office” as defined in para. 1 of article 5 of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003. 223/2009, the official, national and European statistics of the country.”

Georgiou, however, chose to forward only the data for the 2009 deficit. Thus, in a completely unmonitored way, he predicted the 2009 deficit at 11.9%, first, later 13.6% of GDP later inflated it even more at 15.4% and shortly thereafter even higher: at 15.8%!

Georgiou, who was found guilty of this offense without being granted any extenuation and with the maximum penalty, violated the principles that are strictly followed in all statistical services of Europe.

The court’s decision to convict Georgiou for the arbitrary transmission of the 2009 deficit figures paves the way for revealing and putting into question the scheme that trapped Greece in order to enter the era of Memorandums under the eye of the EU-IMF and of course of the domestic economic elite. If the creditors were having a say on which of the three charges the IMF official, Georgiou, must not be convicted, they would choose this particular one, as the rejection of the way that the data of the 2009 deficit was transmitted (as much as it contradicts Georgiou’s acquittal for the non-convergence of the BoD) paves the way for the pending trials which question the 2009 deficit itself! Τhis a decision may not was the best possible, but eases the way of proving that the deficit was formed by the creditors’ orders in order to justify the literature of fiscal derailment.

The current phase of litigation about false Greek Statistics started only a few days after the last disbursement of the 7.7 million tranche, on July 7, and after the SYRIZA-ANEL government had implemented every single claim of the European creditors and the IMF. Then they realized that an unpleasant surprise was awaiting them. These included the acquittal of three members of the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund S.A. (this is the super-fund of privatizations) from Italy, Spain and Slovenia and of the former President of the ELSTAT (Hellenic Statistical Authority), Andreas Georgiou, who in 2009 inflated the deficit so that Greece be placed under the Memoranda status quo. They even ratified his claim for 100.000€ compensation for his legal costs, which is an unparalleled act of political humiliation.

The surprise which followed the disbursement was related to the objection on behalf of the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Xenis Demetriou against the Decree of the Counselors Appeal (No. 969/2017) issued on May 26, 2017, where Georgiou was relieved from the accusations that he artificially inflated the budget deficit. With this particular Decree, proposed by the Prosecutor of the Court of appeal, Mr. John Koutras, and adopted by the majority (only the Prosecutor Christina Romesi voted against) decided not to be referred to the three-member Athens Court of Appeal, George and two of his associates (Konstantinos Molfetas and Athanasia Xenaki) for the accusation of false attestation in criminal complicity at the expense of the Public under the particularly aggravating circumstance of the extreme high value of the object of the crime.

It should be noted that this was the second time that the Mr. George and his co-defendants were exempted by Decree of the Council of the Court of appeal. An identical discharge decision (1149/2015) from the accusation for falsification to a felony degree was preceded.

Georgiou was Never Acquitted!

Consequently, those who argued that Mr. Georgiou has been acquitted twice so far make a broad interpretation of the Decree. They turned the exculpatory acts into acquittals with apparent objective to present Mr. Georgiou as a victim of persecution. And instead of apologizing for his inability to prove his innocence to the court hearing, as any accused is obliged to do, he appears as a victim of political squabbles, when the only political conspiracy in progress aims at his acquittal.

The rage of the EU, who treats Greece as a Banana Republic, making use the slavish attitude of Tsipra’s government, is fully understandable on the basis of the possible consequences a final court decision will have for all the countries that voted for Greece’s lending in 2010, which will conclude that Georgiou and Eurostat altered fraudulently the financial figures of Greece. Hundreds of deputies across the EU have therefore been deceived with non-existent economic data in order to save the French-German banks. That being the case, the EU is now trying to not only save her valuable associate in Athens, who in fraudulent ways and in violation of not just the scientific ethics but also of laws, paved the way for the steamroller of the Memoranda, but also to conceal its own responsibility in the falsification of statistical data. That is, not to open the Windbag of Aeolus and reveal the great robbery organized by the EU and IMF at the expense of the people, using the excuse of “rescues” …

In order to better show how provocative and against of any concept of law is the intervention of the creditors on putting an end on the Georgiou chapter, it is worth a small flashback on the very serious accusations against the former powerful man of the ELSTAT who paved the way for the then Finance Minister, G. Papaconstantinou, to compare Greece with Titanic as a self-fulfilling prophecy, paving the way to the speculators…

It is worth to stand in three specific examples which demonstrate the cooking in the data of the ELSTAT that took place under Georgiou’s responsibility, so that the 2009 budget deficit would initially reach 11.9% and later 15.8% of GDP. They also show why the creditors, the pro-Memorandum governments (social-democratic PASOK, the so-called technocrats of L. Papadimou, the right-wing New Democracy and the current SYRIZA-ANEL) do not want the case before the hearing.

The “creative accounting” was used in the data of: First, hospitals, second, 17 DEKOs (Public Companies of General Interest) and hundreds of legal entities (around 500) and third the famous swap of the former Prime Minister, Kostas Simitis, who were “cooked” with the help of Goldman Sachs so that the budget deficit to rise in high levels in order to launch the “shock therapy” in 2010.

Statistical Alchemies

The amount that the ELSTAT sent as hospital debts as part of a consistent recurring process in October 2009 in order to establish the tables with the financial data of the EU Member States was “just” 2.3 billion euros. However, somehow in the notification that arrived a few weeks later at Eurostat, dated October 21st, 2008, the amount had increased by an additional 2.5 billion euros, reaching at 4.8 billion euros. Then it was considered that even this amount was not sufficient enough to get the deficit to a convenient for their purpose, therefore the Greek government added an extra 1.8 billion euros, justifying this decision with a “technical report on the review of the obligations of Hospitals” which was sent on February 3, 2010. Thus, the 2.3 billion were magically become by the “Wizard” Georgiou 6.6 billion euros! They were so determined (because of the guarantees that they certainly had outside Greece) that they did not take into account even the Court of Auditors, which, out of the alleged 6.6 billion, approved only 1.2 billion euros. They did not even “lower” the 6.6 billion when one and a half month after the unlawful increase in the budget deficit, the Finance Ministry demanded that hospital suppliers accept a 30% haircut for their unpaid services in 2005-2008. Thus, while public funds benefited from this cut, this discount was never recorded in the fiscal figures.

It is worth to underline another fundamental dimension, which was emphasized in the first report of the Truth Debt Committee in June 2015 under the aegis of Greek parliament (here is the full text) with aim to show that Greek debt was illegal and odious: “This statistical practices, which were used to calculate the liabilities of hospitals, clearly violate both the ESA95 European regulations (see . ESA95, par. 3.06, EC no. 2516/2000 Article 2 of Commission Regulation EC no. 995/2001) as well as the Code of Practice of the European Statistical System (European Statistics Code of Practice), particularly as regards the principles of independence of the statistical measurements, statistical objectivity and credibility” (page 24).

Thus, assurances of anonymous sources in Brussels, which are being republished as a whole and without criticism assuring that specific methodologies were used so Eurostat guarantees the reliability of the data are… nonsense.  They are just pulling the wool over the people’s eyes! Nowhere, the ESA95 and ESA2010 regulations indicate this recording process. The fact that the assurances of Brussels are arbitrary is obvious from the fact that even eight years later different sources of Eurostat show a different levels of deficit…So Eurostat should first decide on the level of the 2009 deficit which in every opportunity shows off the very bad quality of the data it publishes (on the contrary, with the US counterpart), and then they can issue firmans in order to put a tombstone on a debate that has a long future.

All In…

In violation of the international regulations, 17 DEKOs and hundreds of legal entities from the non-financial corporations in the General Government sector were also included in order to inflate the deficit. These entities included from ETHEL (Thermal Bus Company), ILPAP (Electric buses of Athens and Piraeus), ISAP (Urban Rail Transport SA) and OSE (Hellenic Railways Organisation) to the Center for Renewable Energy Sources, the Industrial Property Organization, the University Research Institute for Communications and Computer Systems and the Varvakeios Market of fresh meat and fishes.

The result of this actions was to raise the public debt by at least 18.2 billion EUR. In order for A. Georgiou to be able to pass this change, which was implemented without the slightest studies, he canceled the Service Board of Directors and turned it into one man’s authority. Moreover, his “daring” exploits include his effort to deceive the Parliament, where in order to justify the reclassification, he submitted 74 files that supposedly contained the relevant documentation. In fact, they did not contain studies as they should, but questionnaires, balance sheets and a multitude of other documents that were totally unprocessed.

Only pizza and souvlaki menus were missing from these files, knowing that such records are hardly even opened, not to mention… read!

The last trick that Georgiou and his associated recruited to inflate the deficit was the sinful swaps by Kostas Simitis. Specifically, the debt swap agreements signed by the Greek government with Goldman Sachs in order to hide the public debt. Instead of revealing the alchemy used for Greece’s accession to the eurozone and hold account the financial staff of K. Simitis (L. Papademos then governor of central bank and later appointed by Troika prime minister, G. Stournaras then chief of economists and now governor of central bank, etc.), these very alchemy were once again used against Greek people, as Georgiou arbitrarily AGAIN decided to allocate the € 21bn swap within the years 2006-2009, increasing retroactively and in violation of EU regulations  the public debt. Why did he distributed it in previous years and not in the next, as he could do, this is something they never want us to know.

The Europeans tried to cover up the ELSTAT scandal invoking the famous independence of statistical institutes. The European Commission statement said in a nutshell that “if we find the data credible, it should be enough for you”. This is extreme political authoritarianism that shows that the independence … seriously hampers Democracy. Prohibits the democratic control, removes sovereign rights, facilitates poverty, and becomes a policy enforcement tool that no people have decided, nor approved. The independent authorities therefore cancel Democracy, just like the EU itself that uses every means to conceal the ELSTAT scandals!

Translation: FF.

Leonidas Vatikiotis is a Greek economist and analyst.

Source:https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/08/30/the-road-to-the-greek-hell-is-paved-with-false-eu-and-imf-statistics/

Door Dimitris Pavlopoulos – Arbeidssocioloog VU

Landelijke staking tegen de nieuwe bezuinigingen - Athene , 17 mei 2017

Het Griekse drama gaat onvermijdelijk door. De Griekse regering heeft met de Trojka een nieuwe bezuinigings- en hervormingsronde afgesproken. Dat is de vierde op rij sinds 2010 toen de schuldencrisis uitbrak. De meeste media berichten gaan meer over de daling van de rente van de Griekse obligaties verschenen – vanwege de gemaakte afspraken – dan over de inhoud van de afspraken zelf.

In de afgelopen 1,5 jaar, sinds de capitulatie van de SYRIZA-regering voor de eisen van de Trojka, is de kwestie Griekenland bijna verdwenen uit het nieuws. Nu Tsipras geen opstandeling meer is tegen het Brussel-Schauble establishment lijkt het niet meer de moeite waard om over de crisis in Griekenland te berichten. Recentelijk was er zelfs begrip voor de racistische opmerkingen van Dijsselbloem over Zuid-Europeanen die hun geld hebben uitgegeven aan drank en vrouwen. Het lijkt alsof  in Nederland het verder verarmen van een Europese volk normaal gevonden wordt.

Echter geen mediaberichten betekent nog niet dat de crisis opgelost is. De coalitieregering van SYRIZA met de ultrarechtse partij ‘Onafhankelijke Grieken’ heeft zich onder druk van de Trojka, maar uiteindelijk door eigen keuze, van een antibezuinigingsregering getransformeerd naar een regering die de zwaarste neoliberale bezuinigingsmaatregelen doorvoert. De nieuwe afspraken met de Trojka leveren het bewijs daarvoor. Volgens deze afspraken verliezen gepensioneerden bijna één van de 12 pensioenen die ze per jaar ontvangen bovenop de 40% matiging die al is doorgevoerd in de laatste 6 jaar. Er komt een directe matiging van 9-18% op alle pensioenen boven de 700 euro. Daarnaast worden door de verlaging van de belastingvrijegrens van inkomen van 8.636 naar 5.861 euro per jaar zelfs pensioenen van 475 euro gekort.

De bezuinigingen treffen zelfs de minimuminkomens. Vanaf 2018 worden de werkloosheidsuitkering (nu 360 euro per maand, alleen voor het eerste jaar), de kinderbijslag (nu 13-40 euro per maand) en andere uitkeringen gekort. Mensen die getroffen zijn door natuurrampen zoals aardbevingen (dat gebeurt nogal vaak in Griekenland) krijgen minder financiële hulp van de overheid.

De hervormingen – die volgens Brussel en de Nederlandse media de laatste jaren zijn uitgebleven in Griekenland – zijn bevestigd of verder doorgevoerd. Dit betekent dat de verruiming van de openingstijden van winkels als oplossing is gevonden voor de daling van de economische activiteiten. Ondanks het feit dat de grote meerderheid van de bevolking geen geld te besteden heeft blijven in verschillende plaatsen de winkels ook op zondag open. Daarnaast worden tenminste tot 2018 de daadwerkelijke afschaffing van CAO’s en de versoepeling van het ontslagrecht niet teruggedraaid. Tegelijkertijd wordt ook het publieke energiebedrijf geprivatiseerd.

Het is opmerkelijk wat er ontbreekt aan de eisen van de Trojka en de maatregelen van de SYRIZA-coalitieregering. Net zoals bij de vorige centrum of centrumrechtse regeringen hebben de topinkomens geen last gehad van de bezuinigingsrondes. Het is niet voor niets dat volgens de OESO in de jaren van de bezuinigingen de  ratio van de hoogste versus de laagste inkomens (de zogenoemde P90/P10 ratio) is gestegen van 4.4 naar 5.2. De lijsten van de grote belastingontduikers zijn bewust heel langzaam onderzocht. Tegelijkertijd vloeit een klein, maar zichtbaar deel van de Trojka-leningen (die overigens voor 90% ten goede komen aan de schuldeisers) naar de rekeningen van grote media- en constructiebedrijven, maar wordt er nauwelijks geïnvesteerd.

Van een mogelijk succes van de ingevoerde maatregelen is geen sprake. Sinds 2010 is geen enkele economische voorspelling van de Europese Commissie of het IMF over Griekenland uitgekomen. In plaats van de voorspelde groei is er meer recessie gekomen door de bezuinigingen en de hervormingen. In de hele wereld is er geen enkele serieuze econoom die gelooft dat Griekenland er bovenop kan komen binnen de huidige structuur van de EU en de Eurozone met dit bezuinigingsbeleid en zonder een grote afschrijving van de staatschuld.

Uit het recente enquêteonderzoek ‘Generation What’ blijkt tweederde van de Grieken tussen de 18 en de 34 jaar bereid te zijn om deel te nemen aan een grote opstand tegen de regering. Dat is niets anders dan het resultaat van een bezuinigings- en hervormingsbeleid dat een hele bevolking en vooral de jonge generatie een fatsoenlijke toekomst onthoudt.

Griekenland is hierin geen uitzondering. Hetzelfde onderzoek toont aan dat in Italië, Spanje en Frankrijk het percentage van jonge mensen met dezelfde gevoelens maar iets kleiner is dan in Griekenland. Zelfs in Nederland en Duitsland is éénderde van jongeren bereid om in opstand te komen tegen de overheid. Als hetzelfde bezuinigingsbeleid dominant blijft in Europa raken de mensen binnenkort niet meer verward in dilemma’s van Wilders vs Rutte of Macron vs Le Pen en hebben we straks een heel ander politiek landschap op het continent.

Bron van het artikel:https://joop.vara.nl/opinies/nieuwe-bezuinigingen-brengen-niets-goeds-voor-griekenland-en-europa

Bron van de foto:http://time.com/4785515/greece-debt-austerity-alexis-tsipras/

After the Dutch elections many commentators and citizens were pleased with the fact that Geert Wilders has failed to come first. Nevertheless the reality shows that despite this supposed fail, the ideas and practices of the far-right become more and more acceptable in Dutch politics and the main stream media. Voters of Wilders and Thierry Baudet have sent life-threatening messages to Anne Fleur Dekker, an 22-year old activist and until recently member of Groen Links (Green Left) because a day after the elections she wrote an article on Joop.nl against Thierry Baudet with the title: “Baudet is Wilders in sheep’s clothing.” The reason behind these threats is rather obvious: Intimidating everyone who dares stand up to fascist practises in society. Anne Fleur had to go into hiding to be protected from these threats becoming in this way yet another victim of far-rights just because she dared raise her voice against them.

The reaction of the main stream media was to turn against her rather than trying to stand by her.  Besides the threats by far-right voters, Anne Fleur was attacked by the TV presenter Jeroen Pauw as well during the TV show “Pauw”. During this show, she was told off that she has to be careful with her statements and tweets otherwise she might cause an attack on Wilders. What Jeroen Pauw actually did as a TV presenter was to play the role of the bodyguard of far-right politicians and turn a blind eye on the attack on Anne Fleur.

The reaction of Groen Links was even worse. Although they claim to be left, it appears that struggling against far-right is not one of their priorities. They took rather a safe distance from the attack on Anne Fleur and denied the support she really needed by simply announcing that they support the freedom of expression. It turns out that while Groen Links are busy with the negotiations about their participation in a coalition-government with neoliberal parties of the Dutch right, they are ready to sacrifice not only the few left key points of their political programme and their supposed democratic sensitivities but also their own members who fight against far-right. And this the reason why Anne Fleur has now cancelled her Groen Links membership.

With this statement we want to show our solidarity with Anne Fleur Dekker and all the victims of far-right. We want also to remind everyone that the main stream media’s tolerance and support towards the far-right in Greece ended up in the murder of Pavlos Fyssas.

Let’s fight all together against far-right and not allow them creating more victims! We invite all the democratic political parties to break their silence. We invite particularly Groen Links to stop pretending that nothing serious has happened and instead show in practice that they are really a left party that believes in democracy. We invite all the media as well to stop offering friendly services to far-right.

Let’s fight all together against fascist practices in politics and society!

ReINFORM

https://twitter.com/reinformnl

Debt increased, public assets sold. The Greek and European elites make profits.

In January 2017 the coalition government of SYRIZA and ANEL will be two years in power. During this time, in the Dutch media there has been an almost total silence about Greece, interrupted only by short references to the ongoing negotiations for the disbursement of the loan tranches. Silence covers also the new tough measures that the Greek government imposes, dramatically deteriorating the living conditions of the great majority of people in Greece.

At every critical moment of the last two years, the SYRIZA-ANEL government has proven a loyal ally of the Greek and European elites. The year of 2016 was no exception to the long succession of years through which people in Greece have suffered hard austerity measures under the pretext of the debt crisis. These Memoranda measures were never designed to rescue Greece, as the mouthpieces of the EU have been claiming so far, despite the fact that the debt has now climbed from 127,1%  in 2009 to 179.2% of GDP. Even the IMF admitted the failure of the bailout program.

More specifically: In 2012, the Memoranda rescued the creditors with the notorious PSI, which although presented as a reduction of the Greek debt, in reality it was a transfer of the Greek sovereign debt from the German, French, Dutch and Greek banks to the governments of the EU member states. In the same vein, the Memoranda measures imposed ever since have been rescuing those responsible for the crisis in Greece, i.e., the Greek economic elite, while at the same time distributing all profitable activities of the Greek economy to the European and Greek economic elites.

It is characteristic that in 2015, fourteen of the most lucrative regional airports were sold for 1.2 billion to the German Fraport AG-Slentel Ltd. The entire amount was used to repay the debt. Furthermore, despite the pre-election commitments of SYRIZA, the water companies were recently transferred to the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (Greece’s privatizations fund, the so-called TAIPED). As a result, the main multinationals specializing in the water market -and actually denying access to water for large segments of the population- are getting ready to benefit from this transfer. Another characteristic example is the sale of business and housing loans to international speculative funds, which is now on the table of negotiations with the creditors.

Meanwhile, the business elites that looted and indebted the Greek state and destroyed the Greek economy during the 35 years of PASOK and ND governments, continue to enjoy privileged and scandalous contracts as well as full tax immunity even during the so-called “government of the left”.

What about the Greek society and the refugees?

The SYRIZA-ANEL government that promised to end the memoranda policies and relieve the working classes has proven to be one of their most dangerous enemies. Its climb to power by deceiving the Greek people with the supposed negotiation with the creditors ensured their tolerance and disappointment in the face of the hardest and most class-ridden measures so far. In fact, the SYRIZA-ANEL government has been the most efficient administrator of these policies and, therefore, the best option for the Greek elite and its lenders. At the same time, this government along with the creditors are condemning the Greek people to a daily deterioration of their living standards.

A homeless man sits next to a Christmas tree on a street in Athens

Soup kitchen in Athens

According to the latest Eurostat’s data, the percentage of those at risk of poverty rose from 29.1% in 2009 to 35.7% (3.8 million) in 2015. Incidents of starvation in schools are increasing. The new cuts on pensions are plunging into poverty not only the retirees but also a large number of unemployed people who are literally being fed by their parents’ pensions. According to ELSTAT’s (Hellenic Statistical Authority) latest data, only 14% of the unemployed receive the meager unemployment allowance of 360 euros per month for the first year only. At least 500.000 private employees working part-time are paid less than the unemployment benefit. Over one million working people suffer delays in their payment that can even last for 12 months. Uninsured work (without healthcare and pension rights) has reached the staggering levels of 30%. Approximately 24% of the people was obliged to make bold cuts on basic necessities (e.g. food and fuel) in order to buy medicines, while 13% delay to perform the doctor’s prescription because they cannot pay their contribution. To save on their medication, 10% of the patients take smaller doses against their doctor’s instructions. On top of this, auctions of primary residences have begun – and have been met with strong opposition from the people.

The plans of the government and the creditors for the future will further worsen the current situation. The 2017 budget includes an increase up to 26.27 billion in indirect taxes, a decrease in pension expenditure and cuts on benefits.

As far as the refugee crisis is concerned, the SYRIZA-ANEL government has shown a most awful and inhumane face. Fully in line with the right-wing and fascistic policies of the EU, it closed the borders, forcing the refugees to risk the dangerous Aegean Sea crossing, which has cost the lives of hundreds of people. At first, it let the refugees who crossed the border helpless, depending only on the solidarity of the Greek people, and later on, it practically imprisoned them in remote detention centres under appalling conditions and away from the local populations. At the same time, it provocatively allowed the development of racist and fascist groups that committed criminal actions against the refugees. It faithfully applies the shameful EU-Turkey deal, systematically redirecting refugees to the fascist Erdogan regime. As a result of this deal, around 60.000 refugees have stranded in Greece, with 16.000 of them ending up in overcrowded jail-like centres, where three times as many people are now detained as when the deal was signed. In addition, against any notion of legality, the government intervened in the asylum procedures and changed the composition of the committees in order to ensure the massive rejection of asylum claims.

Refugee camp in Thessaloniki

Refugee camp on Chios island

In exchange for remaining in power, the SYRIZA-ANEL government is trying to persuade the Greek people that there is no alternative to the Memoranda and the agreements it has signed, such as the CETA or the EU-Turkey deals. Not only do they celebrate after every unpopular measure they vote and every shameful agreement they sign, they even brutally repress every social reaction to them. With the pretext that the police is difficult to control, they use the fascist police mechanism to repress opposition to unpopular measures and solidarity to refugees. During the SYRIZA-ANEL government, the police has not stopped attacking protests with tear gas and beat protesters. Even members of SYRIZA have been attacked by the police during their participation in demonstrations.

What lessons can be drawn for the people and the left in Europe

The conversion of SYRIZA to a political administrator of the interests of the Greek and European elites should raise concern in the European left. The experience in Greece shows that overthrowing the one-way road of extreme neoliberal policies and blocking the way to racism and fascism that is now prevailing in Europe (and not only in Europe…) cannot be achieved by the climb to power of a left-wing government coalition. With SYRIZA’s conversion, the hope and vision of change seemed to have faded away not only in Greece but also in the rest of Europe. Millions of Greek and European citizens who believed that there can be a left turn in Greece and Europe sank into disappointment.

At the same time, people in Greece learned an important lesson: radical changes cannot be entrusted to a party or a governing coalition. The solution can only come from people themselves. The Memoranda in Greece, the austerity policies in the rest of Europe and the rise of the far right are not unbeatable. People can stop them through collective organization, constant struggle and class solidarity in their places of work, study and neighbourhoods. With bottom-up politics and not by assigning politics to representatives can the people of Europe discover new ways to achieve social justice, decent living conditions and peaceful coexistence.

The lessons drawn from SYRIZA’s approach to the European Union can also be very valuable to the whole of European left. SYRIZA came to power by promising it will reform the EU in a more social welfare direction. This was either wishful thinking or a way of deceiving the Greek people. The EU and the Euro are political and economic institutions that have been created to serve the interests of the European elites at the cost of people’s rights. The results of SYRIZA’s attitude towards the EU is now clear and catastrophic for the Greek people.

The workers, the unemployed and the refugees cannot expect change from a left-wing management of power. The hope for changing the current dramatic situation can only be fulfilled through a political conflict with the EU, the European governments and their policies; through an effort to build new, anti-capitalist social and economic structures. In Greece, the economy will not recover and unemployment will not be reduced by government decrees or appeals for entrepreneurial innovation to a corrupt economic elite.

Social and economic progress can only be achieved if economy is run by the people, by those who will confront the decisions of the government, the creditors and the business elites to privatize and sell off every profitable economic structure in Greece. In the Netherlands, the gradual impoverishment of large parts of the population through lay-offs, lower earnings and poorer working conditions in vital sectors such as healthcare will not stop by the participation of the left in the government, but by massive popular resistance.

Both in Greece and the Netherlands, the improvement of the quality of life for the lower classes, the reversal of the fascist tendencies and the cancellation of the refugee policies that are now treating the refugees as inferior beings and a threat, cannot be accomplished within the neoliberal and authoritarian limits of the EU and the Eurozone. The common struggle and class solidarity of the working people, the unemployed and the refugees in Greece,  the Netherlands and the rest of Europe against the EU’s policies feeding poverty, insecurity, nationalism, racism and xenophobia, are required.

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Twee jaar SYRIZA-ANEL-bewind in Griekenland: twee jaar met de ergste bezuinigingen

De schuld steeg, publieke goederen verkocht. De Griekse en de Europese elites maken winst.

In januari 2017 zal de coalitieregering van SYRIZA en ANEL twee jaar aan de macht zijn. Gedurende deze tijd heerste er in de Nederlandse media een bijna volledige stilte over Griekenland. Stilte over de nieuwe harde maatregelen en dramatische verslechtering van de levensomstandigheden van de grote meerderheid van de Griekse bevolking. Soms werd die stilte slechts onderbroken door korte verwijzingen naar de lopende onderhandelingen over de uitbetaling van de lening tranches.

Op elk cruciaal moment in de afgelopen twee jaar heeft de SYRIZA-ANEL regering bewezen een trouwe bondgenoot van de Griekse en Europese elites te zijn. Het jaar 2016 was geen uitzondering in de lange reeks van jaren waarin de mensen in Griekenland hebben geleden onder de harde bezuinigingsmaatregelen. Deze memoranda maatregelen zijn nooit bedoeld om Griekenland te redden zoals de spreekbuis van de EU tot nu toe beweert. Integendeel de schuld is nu gestegen van 127,1% in 2009 naar 179,2% van het BNP. Zelfs het IMF gaf de mislukking van het bailout-programma toe.

Meer in het bijzonder: In 2012 hebben de memoranda de schuldeisers gered met de beruchte PSI die voorgesteld was als een vermindering van de Griekse schuld. Maar de PSI was in werkelijkheid een overdracht van de Griekse staatsschuld van de Duitse, Franse, Nederlandse en de Griekse banken naar de regeringen van de EU-lidstaten. In dezelfde geest hebben de memoranda maatregelen de Griekse economische elite, degenen die verantwoordelijk zijn voor de crisis in Griekenland, gered. Tegelijkertijd werden alle winstgevende activiteiten van de Griekse economie aan de Europese en Griekse economische elites overgedragen.

Het is kenmerkend dat in 2015 veertien van de meest lucratieve regionale luchthavens werden verkocht voor 1,2 miljard euro aan de Duitse Fraport AG-Slentel Ltd. Het gehele bedrag werd gebruikt om de schuld terug te betalen. Bovendien, ondanks de pre-electorale toezeggingen van SYRIZA, zijn de waterbedrijven onlangs overgedragen aan het Helleense Republiek Asset Development Fund (het Griekse privatiseringsfonds). Als gevolg daarvan hebben de belangrijkste multinationals die gespecialiseerd zijn in de watermarkt, zich klaar gemaakt om te profiteren van deze overdracht. Een ander typisch voorbeeld is de verkoop van bedrijfsleningen en hypotheken aan internationale speculatieve fondsen die nu op de onderhandelingstafel met de schuldeisers ligt.

Ondertussen bleven de zakelijke elites die de Griekse staat geplunderd en in de schulden gestoken hadden, genieten van bevoorrechte en schandalige contracten maar ook van een volledige fiscale immuniteit. Dezelfde elites die de Griekse economie in de loop van de 35 jaar PASOK- en ND-regeringen vernietigd hadden.

Hoe zit het met de Griekse samenleving en de vluchtelingen?

De SYRIZA-ANEL-regering die beloofde het memoranda beleid te beëindigen en de situatie van de werkende klassen te verlichten, heeft bewezen een van de meest gevaarlijke vijanden van die werkende klasse te zijn. Hun greep naar de macht door het Griekse volk te bedriegen met de vermeende onderhandelingen met de schuldeisers heeft het volk ernstig teleurgesteld door de hardste en meest klasse teisterende maatregelen tot nu toe op te leggen. In feite is de SYRIZA-ANEL-regering de meest efficiënte uitvoerder van dit beleid en dus de beste optie voor de Griekse elite en zijn kredietverstrekkers geweest.

Volgens de meest recente gegevens van Eurostat is het percentage van degenen die risico lopen op armoede, gestegen van 29,1% in 2009 tot 35,7% (3,8 miljoen) in 2015. Incidenten van uithongering in scholen nemen toe. De nieuwe bezuinigingen op de pensioenen storten niet alleen de gepensioneerden in armoede maar ook een groot aantal werklozen die letterlijk worden gevoed door de pensioenen van hun ouders. Volgens de laatste gegevens van ELSTAT (het Griekse bureau voor de statistiek) ontvangt slechts 14% van de werklozen de schamele werkloosheidsuitkering van 360 euro per maand voor allen het eerste jaar. Minstens 500.000 particuliere werknemers die in deeltijd werken, krijgen minder betaald dan de werkloosheidsuitkering. Meer dan een miljoen werkende mensen krijgen hun salaris te laat uitbetaald en dit kan oplopen tot 12 maanden. Onverzekerd werk (zonder gezondheidszorg en pensioenrechten) heeft het duizelingwekkende niveau van 30% bereikt. Ongeveer 24% van de mensen moest ernstig bezuinigingen op basisbehoeften (bijvoorbeeld voedsel en brandstof) om medicijnen te kunnen kopen. Tegelijkertijd vertraagt 13% van de mensen het uitvoeren van de voorschriften van de arts omdat zij hun bijdrage niet kunnen betalen. Om te besparen op hun medicatie neemt 10% van de patiënten, tegen de instructies van hun arts, kleinere doses in. Daar komt nog bij dat men is begonnen met het veilen van primaire woningen dat gestuit is op sterke tegenstand van het volk.

De plannen van de overheid en de schuldeisers voor de toekomst zullen de huidige situatie verder verergeren. De begroting voor 2017 voorziet in een stijging tot 26,27 miljard in de indirecte belastingen, een daling van de pensioenuitgaven en bezuinigingen op de uitkeringen.

Wat betreft de vluchtelingen crisis heeft de SYRIZA-ANEL-regering een vreselijk en onmenselijk gezicht getoond. Geheel in lijn met het rechtse en fascistische beleid van de EU sloot het de grenzen waardoor het de vluchtelingen dwong om het risico te nemen de gevaarlijke Egeïsche Zee over te steken. Dat heeft het leven van honderden mensen gekost. In eerste instantie liet de regering de vluchtelingen die de grens overstaken zitten zonder hulp en geheel afhankelijk van de solidariteit van de Griekse bevolking. Later zetten ze hen praktisch gevangen in afgelegen detentiecentra onder erbarmelijke omstandigheden en uit de buurt van de lokale bevolking. Op hetzelfde moment liet het provocerend de ontwikkeling van racistische en fascistische groepen toe die misdadige acties tegen de vluchtelingen begingen. De regering voerde trouw de beschamende EU-Turkije deal uit door systematisch vluchtelingen terug te sturen naar het fascistische Erdogan regime. Als gevolg van deze deal zijn er al 60.000 vluchtelingen gestrand in Griekenland. 16.000 van hen belanden in overvolle gevangenis-achtige centra waar nu drie keer zo veel mensen worden vastgehouden als toen de overeenkomst werd ondertekend. Bovendien greep de overheid, in strijd met elk legaliteitsbeginsel, in in de asielprocedures en veranderde de samenstelling van de commissies om de massale afwijzing van de asielverzoeken te waarborgen.

Om aan de macht te blijven probeert de SYRIZA-ANEL-regering het Griekse volk ervan te overtuigen dat er geen alternatief is voor de memoranda en de overeenkomsten die het heeft ondertekend, zoals de CETA  en de EU-Turkije deal. Ze vieren niet alleen elke onpopulaire maatregel die ze goedgekeurd krijgen en iedere schandelijke overeenkomst die ze tekenen, ze onderdrukken zelfs brutaal elke sociale reactie daarop. Met het voorwendsel dat de politie moeilijk onder controle te houden is, gebruiken ze het fascistische politieapparaat om oppositie tegen impopulaire maatregelen en solidariteit met vluchtelingen te onderdrukken. Tijdens de SYRIZA-ANEL-regering is de politie niet gestopt met het aanvallen van demonstraties met traangas en het slaan van demonstranten. Zelfs leden van SYRIZA zijn aangevallen door de politie tijdens hun deelname aan demonstraties.

Welke lessen kunnen worden getrokken voor de mensen en links Europa

De verandering van SYRIZA in een politieke beschermer van de belangen van de Griekse en Europese elites moet links Europa grote zorgen baren. De ervaring in Griekenland heeft geleerd dat de omverwerping van het eenrichtingsverkeer van het extreem neoliberale beleid en het blokkeren van de weg naar racisme en fascisme die nu heerst in Europa (en niet alleen in Europa) niet kan worden bereikt door de greep naar de macht van een linkse regeringscoalitie. Met de verandering van SYRIZA leek de hoop op en de visie van de verandering niet alleen in Griekenland, maar ook in de rest van Europa te zijn vervaagd. De hoop van miljoenen Griekse en Europese burgers die geloofden dat er een weg naar links in Griekenland en Europa ingeslagen kon worden, zonk in diepe teleurstelling.

Terzelfder tijd hebben de mensen in Griekenland een belangrijke les geleerd: radicale veranderingen kunnen niet worden toevertrouwd aan een partij of een regeringscoalitie. De oplossing kan alleen komen van de mensen zelf. De memoranda in Griekenland, het bezuinigingsbeleid in de rest van Europa en de opkomst van extreemrechts zijn niet onverslaanbaar. Mensen kunnen ze stoppen door middel van collectieve organisatie, constante strijd en klasse solidariteit op hun werk, tijdens hun studie en in hun omgeving. Met bottom-up politiek en niet door het toewijzen van de politiek aan vertegenwoordigers kunnen de burgers van Europa nieuwe manieren ontdekken om sociale rechtvaardigheid, fatsoenlijke levensomstandigheden en een vreedzame samenleving te bereiken.

De getrokken lessen uit SYRIZA’s benadering van de Europese Unie kunnen ook zeer waardevol zijn voor het geheel van links Europa. SYRIZA kwam aan de macht met de belofte om de EU te hervormen in de richting van meer sociaal welzijn. Dit was ofwel “wishful thinking” of een manier om het Griekse volk te bedriegen. De EU en de Euro zijn politieke en economische instellingen die zijn opgericht om de belangen van de Europese elites te dienen ten koste van de rechten van mensen. Het resultaat van SYRIZA’s houding ten aanzien van de EU is nu duidelijk en catastrofaal voor het Griekse volk.

De arbeiders, de werklozen en de vluchtelingen kunnen geen verandering verwachten van een links machtsmanagement. De hoop op verandering in de huidige dramatische situatie kan alleen worden vervuld door middel van een politiek conflict met de EU, de Europese regeringen en hun beleid door middel van een poging om nieuwe, antikapitalistische sociale en economische structuren op te bouwen. In Griekenland zal de economie zich niet herstellen en de werkloosheid niet worden verminderd door de decreten van de overheid of door oproepen voor innovatie en ondernemerschap aan een ​​corrupte economische elite.

Sociale en economische vooruitgang kan alleen worden bereikt als de economie wordt gerund door het volk, door hen die de confrontatie aangaan met de beslissingen van de overheid, de schuldeisers en de zakelijke elites. In Nederland zal ook de geleidelijke verarming van grote delen van de bevolking door middel van ontslagen, lagere lonen en slechtere arbeidsomstandigheden in vitale sectoren zoals de gezondheidszorg niet stoppen door de deelname van links in de regering, maar door massaal volksverzet.

Zowel in Griekenland als in Nederland kan de verbetering van de kwaliteit van leven voor de lagere klassen, de omkering van de fascistische tendensen en de annulering van het vluchtelingenbeleid niet worden bereikt binnen de neoliberale en autoritaire grenzen van de EU en de eurozone. De gemeenschappelijke strijd en klasse solidariteit van de werkende bevolking, de werklozen en de vluchtelingen in Griekenland, in Nederland en de rest van Europa tegen het EU-beleid van verhoging van armoede, onveiligheid, nationalisme, racisme en vreemdelingenhaat, zijn vereist.

Leonidas Vatikiotis has studied Statistics at the University of Piraeus. His doctoral dissertation, at the Sociology Department of Panteion University (2008) considered the causes of the 1970s economic crisis.

It is not only the new austerity measures, which among others include VAT increase, reduction of pensions, reintroduction of the zero deficit clause, Sunday shop opening and implementation of the liberalization measures included in the OECD’s famous toolkit! The deeply unpopular agreement, signed by Tsipras government in the early hours of July 13^th, after 17 hours negotiations between the eurozone Heads of State, (here is the full text) introduces for the first time commitments that guarantee the impoverishment of workers in perpetuity and even attempts to eliminate syndicalism, turning Greece into a second or third class capitalist country for the benefit of the German Fourth Reich! Four specific measures make the difference compared to the previous memoranda. More specifically:

First, the “introduction of quasi-automatic spending cuts in case of deviations from ambitious primary surplus ” -which is one of the four measures that ought to be voted by Wednesday, July 15-, eliminates the possibility of divergence from the targets set. Practically, this means that by the time there is a deviation from the forecasts, a school, a clinic of the National Hospital of Nicaea will be shut down or a whole sector will be sacked in order to reduce the costs and achieve the surplus which will service the debt and satisfy the creditors.

Secondly, another safety valve is also included in the privatization program so that the overambitious target of 50 billion EUR revenue is reached and not just remain on paper. The prospect that the 50% or 25 bn. EUR will be returned to the ESM for the recapitalization of the banks and from the remaining 25 bn. euro half will be given away for reducing the debt and the rest for investments, connects the sellout of public property with real interests, paving the way to even convey to the banks public companies and real estate for privatization so that the selling off to achieve the best possible terms and on their own responsibility. But it needs to be done… and not cancelled in practice as happened in the past.

The tremendous implications of the 50 billion EUR privatization program, which also includes the selling off of the Independent Transmission Operator (ITSO) are revealed if we compare the target of 50 billion euros with the revenues from the so far privatizations. For instance, the 2015 government budget reports that in 2013 there were received only 86 million euros, in 2014 230 million, while for this year the (inflated as usual) budget estimate was 474 million euro. The loot that will follow, with the sellout of all traces of public property (Municipalities, Universities, public entities), will be sweeping, in order to manage to gather such a large amount, as the best “pieces” of public property (OTE Olympic Airways etc.) have already been sold.

Third, the “program under the auspices of the European Commission, for de-politicizing the public administration” will attempt to eliminate trade unionism in the public sector and – something far more important – reform the public administration, by abolishing current hierarchies and launching a new generation of managers in the state machine, fully subjugated to the limited sovereignty regime that the new, third, Memorandum de facto establishes, with predictions such as the “unilateral” amend of “roll-back” legislation adopted in 2015. In practice, this means annulment of any populist law: from the reinstatement of the cleaning ladies to the school guards … and it also remains to see if they will include the opening of ERT. Therefore, the strong resistance of the state machine -that was put forward since 2010- will not only surrender to the demands of Memoranda but also, Troika returns reinforced, with its own people in every key position, ready to encapsulate and implement even and the most reactionary measures, by violating laws and ethics. The arbitrariness of Georgiou in ELSTAT, which becomes further independent, is indicative of the morals they wish to impose on public administration and services.

Fourth, the political targeting of the left Memorandum signed by Tsipras is reflected on the commitment for “rigorous review and modernisation of collective bargaining, labor mobilisations and collective redundancies.” No longer do they target the collective-bargaining rights and strikes, but also the protests themselves. “First time left”… first time that the right to protest is put into question!

Furthermore, even the enactment of these measures by 15 and July 22, as explicitly described, does not prejudice the happy ending for the government’s negotiations. Clear statements such as “the opening of negotiations do not prejudice any potential final agreement” or “the Greek offer of reform measures needs to be seriously strengthened to take into account the strongly deteriorated economic and fiscal position of the country during the last year”, guarantee that we are at the beginning of a long and painful process, involving continuous adoption of unpopular laws, that will ensure the approve of the new 82-86 bn. euro loan and the release of the instalments, as happened in the previous five years.While with other humiliating formalities like “the dangers of non-rapid conclusion of the negotiations fully borne Greece”gives the creditors the right to ask for … their mother and father, whenever they wish, from any government, obliging Greece to immediately comply and without objections.

Moreover, the fact that the banks will not open (as explicitly stated by the term “rapid decision on the new program is a condition to allow banks to reopen”)implies that the EU will keep sending ultimatums until its requirements are met in full, such as “decisive action for non-performing loans”, which means that thousands of houses, even first residences will soon go under the hammer… Even if this is about a blackmail that was explicitly rejected by the grand ‘No’ of the Greek people on the a referendum of July 5th.

The third memorandum, which signals the complete humiliation of SYRIZA, puts the last nail in the coffin of the request the public debt cancellation, as claimed by the people and was grounded by the recent findings of the Parliament’s Truth Committee on Public Debt. The clear reference on the penultimate page of the decision that “the Euro Summit stresses that nominal haircuts on the debt cannot be undertaken” in conjunction with the reference”the Greek authorities reiterate their unequivocal commitment to honour their financial obligations to all their creditors fully and in a timely manner”, import -fully and completely- the current government of Alexis Tsipras to the camp of the enemies of the people and society, who from 2010 until today use the debt in order to circumvent rights and conquests of decades!

Translation: Foula Farmakides

Source of the article: https://leonidasvatikiotis.wordpress.com/2015/07/17/third-memorandum-worse-than-the-previous-ones/

Source of the photos: Depression Era Project/Dimitris Michalakis: http://www.depressionera.gr/262731/1607618/works/dimitris-michalakis

For five years, the Greeks have been publicly shamed, insulted, humiliated and spat upon by the rest of Europe. It is high time to show some respect.

As a former correspondent in Greece I am still regularly invited to radio and TV shows in the Netherlands, or to give lectures or talks about the Greek debt crisis somewhere in the country. The latter are usually organized by some kind of foundation or organization of “Hellenophiles.” In addition to Dutch lovers of Greek culture and parents of children who are married to Greeks and who live somewhere in Hellas, those in attendance often include Greeks (and their partners) living in the Netherlands.

Lately, more than ever, I find myself presented at these type of gatherings with deeply unpleasant anecdotes. The stories of Dutch citizens refusing to pay their bills after eating and drinking at Greek tavernas because “they’ve already given enough money to the Greeks by now” have been circulating for some years, and even made it into the national newspapers. But now I find myself being approached by concerned mothers and fathers of half-Greek children who tell me that their daughters or sons have come home from school angry, sometimes even in tears, because their economics teacher, for instance, would unabashedly depict the Greeks as lazy, unreliable, tax-dodging profiteers who can’t be trusted to live up to their agreements and who are threatening the very survival of the EU, and because the teacher would profess, with full conviction, that kicking Greece out of the Eurozone is the only solution — the faster the better.

When those half-Greek kids oppose such contentions in class, recounting the stories of their family members in Greece who barely have enough money to buy food, trying to explain that Greece has in fact been extremely “reliable” for the past five years in terms of sticking to the bailout agreements — only to find the public debt rising and the economy reduced to shambles — they were simply laughed at and publicly humiliated. After class, such rituals would often be repeated at the school-yard. And things are getting worse, they say.

Ever since Syriza won the Greek elections in January, ever since the “messenger boys from Brussels” (the old parties ND and PASOK) disappeared from the Greek political scene, ever since the media developed its obsession with the striking new Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, ever since the new Greek government desperately began trying to do something – however piecemeal it may be — to soften Merkel’s stance and to overturn the catastrophic austerity measures and reforms of the Troika (EU, ECB and IMF), it has become commonplace to openly and shamelessly despise and humiliate Greek people.

Just take a look at the media — it’s all in the details. Consider the journalist who, despite probably never having set foot in Greece and not having the faintest idea what she’s talking about, still chatters along with the rest of the crowd on public radio, constantly yelling that ‘the Greeks haven’t got their act together’, that ‘they don’t live up to their agreements’, that ‘they’re sabotaging the whole operation’, and that ‘the Greeks have voted for the wrong party.’

The Dutch newspapers, not just the main tabloid but even the high-quality ones, are brimming with sentences like ‘the extreme-left Syriza government is bound to be unpopular in Europe’, ‘the Greek Prime Minister Tsipras had an icy reception in Brussels’, ‘the EU member states are fed up with Greece’, ‘patience with Greece is running out’, ‘the Greeks are provocatively engaging in a confrontation that will have far-reaching consequences’, and ‘the Greeks are really getting into the Germans’ hair with their unacceptable diversion tactics, bringing up the question of German war reparations now, of all times’.

All of this without any criticism, nuance or explanation. No one in the journalistic echo chamber seems to wonder whether it’s actually right for a democratically-elected government — one that can prove incontrovertibly that the austerity measures of the past five years have only made matters worse and therefore rightly wants to get rid of them — to have to undergo an ‘icy reception’ in Brussels. No one corrects the description of Syriza, which is anything but extreme-left and much more like a social democratic party that’s simply trying to defend the welfare state — or whatever is left of it — in Greece. No one points out that the Greek government is apparently ‘provocative’ and ‘confrontational’ simply because it delivers an inconvenient truth, without it being heard.

No one compliments the Greeks for the patience they have shown over the past five years as they bent over backwards to live up to the Troika’s impossible demands as well as they could, only to end up with a rising public debt, sky-rocketing unemployment, and a situation in which one in three Greeks now live below the poverty line and 3 out of 11 million Greeks no longer have access to public healthcare. No one mentions the fact that the new Syriza-led government, in contrast to previous governments, is the first to genuinely commit itself to cracking down on tax evasion by the country’s corrupt elite. Or that Prime Minister Tsipras will be the first to make the media tycoons who own the major commercial TV and radio stations pay for their transmission licenses, which up until now had been doled out for free in exchange for political support.

Tsipras has also launched an investigation into the fake loans provided to certain TV stations by some of the country’s biggest banks; loans that never had to be repaid as long as the broadcasters would agree not to bring up the bankers’ mismanagement and misconduct. This in turn explains why those commercial broadcasters are ruthlessly accusing Tsipras and Varoufakis of anything that flies, vigorously chanting along in the anti-Greek media chorus of the German spin doctors in Brussels. In their own reporting, foreign journalists often uncritically parrot whatever is being said on those TV stations, presuming that they are citing “objective” Greek news outlets, not knowing (or refusing to admit) that they thereby end up participating in a propaganda war waged by billionaire media tycoons who are outraged at the government simply because they are finally being forced to pay for their transmission licenses.

Beyond this, no one in the Dutch media seems to put the question of German war reparations — an issue that has been flaring up in the Greek press ever since the reunification of Germany in 1990 — in a wider historical perspective, in contrast even to the German media itself, where there appears to be at least some recognition that the Greeks do in fact have a point (and have had one for many decades) when it comes to reparations, and that the matter still remains to be settled. Add to this the fact that Greece, together with Poland, was the country that suffered most under German occupation. As the historical records show, the horrors endured by a country like the Netherlands were a tea party compared to what the Nazis did to Greece. Still the Greeks were far less anti-German after the war than the Dutch. There is no Greek equivalent to the Dutch anti-German slur mof. The Dutch don’t seem to be aware of any of this.

Whatever the Greeks do or say these days is by default considered to be wrong, provocative and unheard of. In the troublesome consensus of the continental underbelly, collective disdain for, irritation with and punishment of the Greeks is more justified than ever. “It’s almost like a genie has escaped the bottle — how will we get it back in?” a saddened mother, married to a Greek wine trader, recently told me during a gathering in the Dutch town of Groningen. Young Greek workers and students regularly approach me on Facebook with terrible stories, telling me they feel relegated to the position of second-class citizens, and recounting how aggressive some of their Dutch counterparts have become. One of them was kicked at a tram stop by a random stranger a few weeks ago, just because she was Greek.

Up until now I would hear these kind of stories and I would try to imagine what it must be like to be Greek these days. But since a few weeks ago, I know what it’s like — if only just a little bit.

I was recently invited to appear on camera for two talk shows. One presented itself as an independent project, a nice initiative by a group of idealists to introduce some more analytical depth into the media, recorded in a remote studio and broadcast on YouTube. I was asked to appear, pro bono, alongside a Greek economist who teaches at the sociology faculty of the VU University in Amsterdam, to talk about the latest developments in Greece. The other is a popular late night talk show that I have joined quite regularly over the last couple of years, for a modest expert fee. There, I was asked to appear alongside a former correspondent in Berlin, for a sort of “debate” — Athens versus Berlin, so to speak. Both shows are hosted by male presenters. I won’t refer to their names, they’re irrelevant — what matters is the remarkable manner in which the Greek economist, but myself as well, were treated, in contrast to the man from Berlin. It was nothing new for the economist; but for me it was.

In the remote studio the economist and I were basically left to ourselves. We weren’t even offered a cup of coffee: the whole production team was smoking outside, and it wasn’t until our actual appearance on the show that we were offered some water for the conversation. The conversation itself was surreal. The presenter announced that the show wanted to be an alternative to the usual superficiality and commodification of the mainstream media. This sounded like music to the ears, but what happened afterwards was the exact opposite. The interviewer really only had one question: Grexit or no Grexit?

Despite the fact that both the economist and I had spent countless hours preparing the conversation with the show’s producers by phone, none of the other issues were discussed. Every time my Greek colleague tried to explain something “complicated”, he was silenced. Whenever I tried to back him up, the same happened to me. Slowly but surely I began to realize what was going on: the presenter simply didn’t take us seriously at all — he couldn’t even lend an ear, let alone show genuine interest in what we had to say. Without any shame whatsoever, he displayed his appalling lack of knowledge, but because he was speaking to and about the “Greeks”, it didn’t matter one bit — or at least that’s how it felt. Before we knew it we were back outside, utterly baffled, after the most superficial, vacuous and stupid interview ever.

The economist laughed.

“What’s happening in miniature here, is happening in Greece and in Brussels on a much larger scale. Now you know what it feels like to be Greek these days,” he concluded, consoling me with a soft pat on the back.

At the other talk show, the late night one, it already began when I walked into the editorial office. The “latest news” from Greece was doing the rounds: the Greek government would not only lay claim on German buildings in Athens — including the renowned Goethe Institute — as collateral for German war reparations, but they would also begin to seize the private holiday homes of German citizens. Amidst all the consternation I shouted as loudly as I could that this couldn’t be true, but it said it in The Economist so it had to be true. For a second they even managed to convince me that I had gone crazy, so against my better judgement I made a phone call to Athens just before the start of the live broadcast. Obviously the rumours were wrong. No state-owned German buildings were to be seized, let alone the private holiday homes of German Hellenophiles. But the tone had been set. In the studio, before the cameras start rolling, just before the broadcast begins, the presenter always welcomes the live audience, summarizes the topics under discussion that evening, and presents the guests to the public. When  my colleague from Berlin and I were up, the host wearily rolled his eyeballs into the back of his head and said something like:

‘To be honest I’m really sick and tired of this subject, and of the Greeks as well… It bores me to death, but what can we do: they’re back in the news. So, as always, we have Ingeborg Beugel back in the studio with us tonight. But thankfully we also have a fresh new voice from Berlin this time, former correspondent bla-bla-bla.’ I froze up. No guest would ever want to be introduced like that. I didn’t show up just to contribute to the subject-fatigue of some TV presenter. For a second I considered taking off my microphone, getting up and simply walking out. ‘Jeez,’ I thought, ‘that’s probably what Greek officials in Brussels must be thinking as well, just before they start their Eurogroup meetings.’ It didn’t get much better when I took my seat across from the Berlin correspondent. With the cameras now running, he was introduced as a knowledgeable guest who knew a lot about Germany. I was more or less contemptuously presented as the guest who stands “squarely behind the Greeks.”

Excuse me?

For fifteen years, I made a living — together with correspondents from many other countries — tirelessly pointing at everything that was so obviously wrong in Greece. It was almost like the bureaucrats and diplomats in Brussels weren’t even reading the newspapers: during all those years, the silence from Europe was deafening: the EU kept providing subsidies that would disappear into corrupt pockets without any oversight whatsoever — let along any sanctions — and European banks kept lending irresponsible sums of money to Athens against all odds, blinded by the alure of easy profits. Over the past five years I was like a lone voice crying in the wilderness of the Dutch media: no, I argued, the Greek crisis is not just the fault of the Greeks. Let’s put things in historical perspective.

Everybody knows that this was above all a banking crisis; but we’re simply not allowed to say that. And, lo’ and behold if things get a little too complicated — there has never been any space or time for that. Now that Greece’s new left-led government correctly points out that the past five years of unbridled cutbacks and reforms, instead of leading to recovery, have led to the very opposite — a humanitarian and economic catastrophe — and that the European banks were the only ones to profit from the 240 billion Euros in emergency loans, things are worse than ever. Just because I try, as any good journalist should, to explain the stance of the Greek government and judge it on its merits, I am considered to be (and treated like) a Greek. And now I understand: the Greeks are not supposed to be listened to, and they definitely do not deserve any respect.

The conversation during the late night talk show proceeded accordingly: I could barely contribute my two cents, was constantly interrupted, and whenever I said something that actually made sense — like the fact that the Greek public debt was 120 percent in 2010 and currently stands at 175 percent, i.e., the past five years of misery for the Greeks have proven to be a massive failure — the looks I received and the body language of my interlocutors spoke volumes. The icing on the cake came at the end of the interview, when the next guest was just about to start. I mumbled, somewhat desperately, that the Greek government also has its election pledges to take into account, that this is the reason they ended up passing an urgently needed law — which, by the way, had already been greatly weakened under EU pressure — to provide 200 million euros for the poorest of the poor in Greece, unleashing the collective ire of all EU member states.

“But that’s obviously insane,” the presenter concluded. “They just shouldn’t have voted for a government like that.” As if democracy doesn’t matter anymore; as if the Greeks are naughty and wrong for having voted (new) politicians into power who no longer want to abide by the German austerity diktat. I couldn’t believe what I had just heard. But no one appeared to be the least bit shocked.

Even though I felt horrible about that broadcast, even though I felt I hadn’t managed to properly express myself, had allowed myself to be cornered and trampled, that night I received an astonishing amount of positive reactions on Facebook and Twitter. Normally I receive hate mail, but this time there was clearly a sense of “sympathy for the underdog.” Apparently the show’s viewers hadn’t missed how I had been put up against the wall with nowhere left to go — just like the Greeks in the Eurozone today.

The next day, to revive my spirits, I read some passages from Wolfgang Streeck’s latest book, Buying Time: The Delayed Crisis of Democratic Capitalism, in which the German sociologist and former director of the Max Planck Institute explains that the Greek crisis is not the result of the Greeks having burnt a hole in their pockets, nor of the Germans being too stingy, but is instead a characteristic manifestation of the inherent incompatibility between capitalism and democracy. Greek democracy is simply the first to be sacrificed at the altar of European capitalism, just to buy some more time for the country’s creditors.

Reading that somehow made me feel better. Perhaps I’m not in such bad company, after all. And so I put on some Aretha Franklin, and sing along at the top of my lungs:

R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

Also for the Greeks, please!

Ingeborg Beugel is a Dutch journalist who was formerly based in Greece as a foreign correspondent for various Dutch media. She regularly appears on Dutch television and in print to comment on the Greek debt crisis. This article was translated from Dutch by ROAR editor Jerome Roos.

Source of the article:http://roarmag.org/2015/05/respect-greeks-debt-crisis/

The recent Eurogroup negotiations dispelled any remaining doubts about the purposes of the European Union. What we saw in the last few days had nothing to do with “our equal partners”, as the finance minister Y. Varoufakis had said, but was nothing less than a gang led by the interests of the German capital, shamelessly threatening and blackmailing the Greek people.

The Greek government, following undeviatingly the path of “realism” within the suffocating framework of the euro and the EU, did not honour its pre-election promises but signed an agreement that ties again the Greek people’s hands and feet, leaves the memoranda intact and allows the odious troika to fully control the policies applied in Greece.

As a political collectivity of Greeks living in the Netherlands we express our opposition to the new agreement between the Greek government and the European Union. The mandate that the Greek government received on the 25th of January and the urgent needs of the Greek people dictated the overall rejection of the memoranda’s commitments and laws agreed by the previous governments. Instead, the new agreement opens the way for the application of new memoranda, leading the Greek people to economic exhaustion. In addition, by accepting the whole debt, the Greek government deprives itself of the possibility to apply any policy that would substantially improve the Greek people’s condition.

The obstinate attitude of the European Union with regard to the mandate of the Greek people for political change amounts to a declaration of economic and social war against them. There is no doubt that the EU will display the same attitude towards any other European people that will attempt to place their needs over the interests of the financial sector. It is obvious that even the most vital human needs and democracy have no place in this European Union.

If the government applies the agreed commitments it will be faced with the Greek people. People’s rights and needs are non-negotiable.

We invite the peoples of Greece, the Netherlands and the rest of Europe to avoid the divide-and-reign trap covered with a national rhetoric in order to turn them against each other and make them blame one another for the austerity and crisis. The crisis is a result of the capitalist system of production that is based on fierce competition and the relentless pursuit of maximizing profits. The crisis is created by the ruthless economic elites and the governments that serve them. It is caused by the accumulation of global wealth by the 1%.

By creating strong and independent popular movements in every European country, peoples of Europe can fight back against the anti-democratic, disastrous policies and practices imposed by the European Union and the governments of its member states.

ReINFORM

Oι πρόσφατες διαπραγματεύσεις του Eurogroup διέλυσαν και τις τελευταίες αμφιβολίες όσον αφορά τους σκοπούς της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης. Αυτό που είδαμε τις προηγούμενες μέρες δεν ήταν όπως ανέφερε ο υπουργός Οικονομικών Γ.Βαρουφάκης οι «ισότιμοι εταίροι μας», αλλά μια ανελέητη συμμορία με αρχηγό τα συμφέροντα του γερμανικού κεφαλαίου, η οποία απείλησε και εκβίασε αδίστακτα ολόκληρο τον ελληνικό λαό.

Η ελληνική κυβέρνηση, ακολουθώντας απαρέγκλιτα τον δρόμο του «ρεαλισμού» εντός του ασφυκτικού πλαισίου του ευρώ και της ΕΕ, δεν τίμησε τις προεκλογικές υποσχέσεις της, αλλά υπέγραψε μια συμφωνία που ξαναδένει χειροπόδαρα τον ελληνικό λαό, αφήνει ανέπαφα τα μνημόνια και δίνει το δικαίωμα στη λαομίσητη τρόικα να ελέγχει πλήρως την ασκούμενη πολιτική στην Ελλάδα.

Ως πολιτική συλλογικότητα Ελλήνων της Ολλανδίας εκφράζουμε την αντίθεσή μας στην υπογραφή της νέας συμφωνίας μεταξύ της ελληνικής κυβέρνησης και της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης. Η εντολή που έλαβε η κυβέρνηση στις 25 Ιανουαρίου αλλά και οι επείγουσες ανάγκες του λαού της Ελλάδας υπαγόρευαν την ολοκληρωτική απόρριψη των μνημονιακών δεσμεύσεων και την ακύρωση των μνημονιακών νόμων των προηγούμενων κυβερνήσεων. Αντίθετα, η νέα συμφωνία ανοίγει τον δρόμο για την εφαρμογή νέω μνημονίων που θα σημάνουν την οικονομική εξάντλησή του λαού. Επίσης, αποδεχόμενη το σύνολο του χρέους, η παρούσα κυβέρνηση αφαιρεί από τον εαυτό της τη δυνατότητα να ασκήσει οποιαδήποτε πολιτική ουσιαστικής βελτίωσης της κατάστασης του λαού.

Η αδιάλλακτη στάση της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης απέναντι στην εντολή του ελληνικού λαού για αλλαγή πολιτικής ισοδυναμεί με κήρυξη οικονομικού και κοινωνικού πολέμου σε αυτόν. Την ίδια στάση θα κρατήσει η ΕΕ στην προσπάθεια κάθε άλλου ευρωπαϊκού λαού να βάλει τις ανάγκες του πάνω από τα συμφέροντα του χρηματοπιστωτικού τομέα. Είναι ξεκάθαρο ότι σε αυτή την Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση δεν έχουν θέση ούτε καν οι πιο αδήριτες ανάγκες των λαών, ούτε η δημοκρατία.

Εάν η κυβέρνηση προχωρήσει στην εφαρμογή αυτών των δεσμεύσεων θα βρεθεί αντιμέτωπη με τον ελληνικό λαό. Τα δικαιώματα και οι ανάγκες του λαού είναι αδιαπραγμάτευτα.

Καλούμε τον ελληνικό και τον ολλανδικό λαό, καθώς και όλους τους λαούς της Ευρώπης, να μην πέσουν στην παγίδα του εθνικού «διαίρει και βασίλευε», που στρέφει τον ένα λαό ενάντια στον άλλο θεωρώντας τον υπεύθυνο για την κρίση και τη λιτότητα. Η κρίση είναι αποτέλεσμα του καπιταλιστικού συστήματος παραγωγής που στηρίζεται αποκλειστικά στον άκρατο ανταγωνισμό και την ασύστολη επιδίωξη για μεγιστοποίηση του κέρδους. Η κρίση δημιουργήθηκε από την ασυδοσία των οικονομικών ελίτ και των κυβερνήσεων που τις υπηρετούν. Δημιουργήθηκε από την υπερσυσσώρευση του πλούτου στο 1% του παγκόσμιου πληθυσμού.

Με τη δημιουργία ενός δυνατού και ανεξάρτητου λαϊκού κινήματος σε κάθε χώρα της Ευρώπης, καλούμε τους λαούς να αντιπαλέψουν τις αντιδημοκρατικές και καταστροφικές πολιτικές και πρακτικές που επιβάλλουν η Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση και οι κυβερνήσεις των κρατών-μελών.

ReINFORM

]]> http://www.reinform.info/?feed=rss2&p=7974 0 http://www.reinform.info/?p=7742 http://www.reinform.info/?p=7742#comments Fri, 09 Jan 2015 09:57:05 +0000 patti http://www.reinform.nl/?p=7742 By Dimitris Pavlopoulos

(Dimitris Pavlopoulos works as an assistant professor in Sociology at the Free University of Amsterdam.)

The Greek elections on January 25^th are sending a message to whole Europe.

On January 25^th the Greek citizens are going to cast their votes. Since the announcement of the early parliamentary elections, intimidation of Greek citizens begun. The President of the European Commission warned the Greek people that they should not vote for “extremist parties”. The German Minister of Finance claimed that he expects the continuation of the austerity policies regardless of the result. The media in many European countries are engaged in a discussion about the threat of a “radical left” government in Greece.

All parties participating in this intimidation propaganda want to ensure that the austerity programme will be further implemented in Greece at all costs. The Troika (European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund) have already made agreements with the current coalition government about a new round of austerity measures: the minimum salary to be reduced to 150 Euro, the VAT to be increased, thousands of civil servants to be laid off and home evictions due to unpaid taxes or unserviced bank loans to be further facilitated.

Humanitarian crisis

In Greece, it is the austerity programme itself that has caused the tragedy and not – as the Troika suggests- its poor implementation. This austerity programme, instead of reducing the sovereign debt, has increased it from 120% of the GDP in 2009 to 179%. The GDP is reduced by 25% because of the austerity measures. The investments are in such a free fall that Greece ranks among the countries with the lowest investments in the world. The positive figures concerning economic growth and the primary budget surplus are nothing else but a calculating trick of the government in agreement with the EU. For example, the royal subsidies to the banks are not calculated as government expenses.

At the same time, this austerity programme has caused a humanitarian crisis. One third of the population (and two thirds of the young people) are jobless, whereas almost half of the population lives below or almost below poverty line. Almost three millions workers receive their salary with one to twelve months delay. Three million Greek citizens have no access to public health services. Approximately 300.000 children live in households where both parents are jobless. Even basic state services have been hardly hit by austerity as illustrated by the inefficient mobilization of the Greek rescuing services during the disaster of the ferry Norman Atlantic in the Adriatic Sea.

Other course

The economic crisis is a European crisis and not just a Greek crisis. Many European governments – the Belgian government included- implement austerity policies that are based on the same principles as the ones of Samaras-government. These policies have resulted into increased unemployment, increased social inequality and consist also a threat to democracy in Europe.

On January 25^th Greek citizens will be the ones that have the mandate to decide . It ishigh time that Greece follows a different course. The needs of the population should be set above the interests of the creditors of the state. since the EU and the governments of the member states are not planning to revise this austerity policies, it is highest time that European citizens take their future in their own hands. Therefore the Greek elections on 25^th January are important for Europe as a whole.

Source of the article: http://www.demorgen.be/opinie/-in-griekenland-zijn-de-bezuinigingen-zelf-de-oorzaak-van-de-ellende-a2171580/

Source of the featured image: http://socialistworker.org/2011/06/20/will-greeces-government-fall

The article was translated by ReINFORM.