The Greek Disappointment

Or: The reactionary development of would-be revolutionaries

 By Mark Linnhoefer

God damn it. Can’t those that I deem to be symbols of hope for a positive shift in political ideologies stop fucking up all the time already?

When Tsirpas was elected in Greece, I was actually pretty stoked! A left-wing party running a European country! I had high hopes for those bastards. No more austerity programs in deals that are tantamount to extortion with the infamous Troika, no more ass kissing but some ass kicking – I expected a great change, to be honest. Not right away, of course, but I hoped that they could turn that sinking ship called Greece around. But alas, reality, or rather money-backed pressure, always prevails. The IMF, the ECB, and the European Commission have gotten their way once again, and all the great Finance Minister of the Greek did was delay them. What a huge fucking accomplishment that was. I mean the guy literally just crumbled under the pressure and managed to drag the entire Greek economy down with him.

Let’s take a look at what happened exactly:

We all remember that Greece “got into” the EU using some falsified financial reports that Goldman-Sachs allegedly helped them fake, for whatever reason… *cough* influence *cough*…. When the shit inevitably hit the fan, the Greek economy quickly descended into a stupefying recession. Once it hit rock bottom, the German government and the main European stakeholders, i.e. ECB, IMF, and EC, were very quick to send so-called “rescue funds” to the Greek… well, to the Greek banks and investors, that is.

The Greek populace has not seen a single fucking penny of that money. And the Germans were then wondering why the Greek people were pissed at Merkel and her merry band of bankers, which is understandable as the message that was spread throughout German media was that “we [the Germans] tried to save their [the Greek] asses, and now they’re drawing Hitler-beards on the face of our glorious chancellor, those uneducated, lying punks!”…. Ha. Now that’s what I call misrepresenting facts on a major scale. Anyhow.

Then there was some banter, some back-and-forth between the then-ruling Greek government and the European forces, which resulted in even more “rescue funds,” but with the condition that Greece implement a variety of austerity measures, most of which revolved around cutting social expenses such as wages, pensions, and medical costs. At that time, some Greek hospitals did not even have the funds necessary to buy life-saving medicine. How’s that for “rescue of the Greek people”, huh?

Then, after some time of poverty and misery, there was a new election, and a left-wing party that ran on the promise that it would abolish any and all frugality laws and restore prosperity and sovereignty to the Greeks. Well, at first, they did adhere to what they said; they went head-to-head with the infamous Troika and did everything in their power to combat those measures imposed on the Greek nation. But alas, that was only at first. Afterwards, the concessions and compromises came and laid the path for what’s happening today – a return to austerity measures and devastating recession.

Stores are closing up again, and now, because Varoufakis has no backbone whatsoever, the amount of spending cuts was increase from €8bn to €16bn. He simply crumbled under the pressure. Oh, and that thing with setting up a backup-plan so that Greece may return to the Drachma in a heartbeat if all else failed? He actually got some hackers involved and made sure that a second currency was being established behind every one’s back. Which is pretty awesome, if you ask me – sure, he broke some laws, and in the end it was this unlawful behavior that put the nail into Greece’s coffin, but at least he thought about the people for once instead of focusing on the fucking banks.

And now, the Greek government has finally crumbled under the pressure and its creditors have gotten their way; Greece is nearing an agreement with said creditors that will force it to undertake the dreaded “economic reforms” – austerity measures aimed at social expenses – in exchange for €82-86bn of rescue funding, most of which will in all likelihood go straight to the financial sector to “save the banks”… Like the fucking banks are the ones in need of saving.

This cannot stand. How can it be that the people of Greece have to suffer because both of their governments fucked up? It’s not like all of Greece went to the ECB and other creditors to ask for loans. It’s not like all of Greece faked their financial reports to join the EU. It’s not like all of Greece owes that money. Hell, it’s not even like all of Greece wanted to join the fucking EU in the first place. But now it’s all of Greece that’s paying the price for the mistakes of a few.

The main problem behind this is a referendum in July to decide whether or not Greece would accept the austerity measures. And the people’s vote was a clear “No” with 61% of the votes. But apparently, the EU has taking it upon itself to consistently ignore these kind of votes and, thanks to techniques that amount to flat-out extortion, has managed to force the “economic overhaul policies” down the Greeks’ throats anyway. Not on the original terms, but on terms that in essence boil down to the same shit – 60€ allowance per day, foreclosures, stores shutting down, and social expenses being cut. Gotta love the European definition of democracy.

Anyhow. Varoufakis is awaiting trial, and the Greek nation is on its way right back into the hellhole of austerity and spending cuts that it had just managed to partially crawl out of. I just hope that someday there will be some election that will actually change something for the people of Greece, or the birthplace of Socrates will quickly turn into a third-world country, with unemployment and crime and poverty skyrocketing, leaving the nation at the whims of criminals and extremists.

Selah.