Despite the fact that it is impossible to predict how soon the votes
will result in changes in actual policy, May 6 was a good start for
Greeks, for the French and for all the European people to be able to
react.
The European Spring
“If you can’t find spring you make it,” wrote surrealist
poet Odysseas Elytis, the leading Greek poet of his generation and a
Nobel Prize winner. The month of May is the heart of spring, even though
EU bureaucrats might not feel it yet in cold and sun-less Brussels. Yet
May 2012 may be the beginning of the “European Spring,” as revolt
against austerity is sweeping Europe.
Hollande’s victory in France and Tsipras’s success has helped drive
home the message that Europeans have had it with austerity. Europe’s
political elite, including Europe’s boss, Ms. Merkel, know even though
they don’t and won’t admit it, that both elections were referendums on
European economic strategy. The collapse of the Dutch government over
proposed austerity measures, and an economic report showing that Britain
is doing worse in the current slump than it did in the 1930s seem to
have finally broken through the wall of denial. Suddenly, Europe is
admitting that austerity is simply not working.The tectonic plates of
the EU are moving. This is why we see the tragic, farcical and simply
depressing construction of the current power system on the edge of a
nervous breakdown.
Eurozone’s problem child is not the problem anymore
The financial crisis has broken the illusion of stability, the cracks
in the concrete of the Eurozone are gaping. It’s not Greece-Eurozone’s
problem child anymore. It’s about Portugal and Spain, Ireland and Italy
even France. From the Netherlands to Romania, governments are falling
under the weight of cuts and tax increases required by the Eurozone’s
new permanent deflation treaty. Francois Hollande’s victory and his
rejection of the fiscal pact is (hopefully) the first defeat of the
policies Merkel and the miserable EU technocrats have forced on the
European people. Hollande’s election has not only opened up the chance
of a change of direction in France. His elections, given that he will
keep his promises, will mark a whole new era for th EU.
European voters everywhere are turning against the elites that have
managed most of the continent for the last few decades. The reason is
simple. They realized that Greece isn’t the problem. The real structural
problem is in the EU’s political system, which has been warped and
paralyzed by the power of a small, wealthy minority. This is the reason
why the Portuguese, the Irish, the Italians even the French, suffer. A
whole continent, including superpowers like France and Italy have been
turned into Germany’s “Yes” man. This is what the Greek and the French
voters realized last Sunday, and with their vote they tried to shout to
Brussels that they woke up and they are determined to find the key to
economic recovery, which means finding a way to get past that minority’s
malign influence.
Europe’s Boss
Almost 70 years after World War II, we are right back where we
started. Germany clearly is Europe’s boss. Merkel seems rather upset
with the Greek and the French voters.How dare the French and Greeks
reject a failed strategy!
The day before the Greek elections, the German finance minister
issued a shameful threat to Greeks, saying that they must honor their
commitments or “take the consequences.” It isn’t clear yet what those
consequences will be but then again, with the suicide and homelesness
rates having doubled in a year, what Greeks have now clearly isn’t
working either. Any logical person understands that terrorizing Greeks
and then the Spanish, the Portuguese and so on to accept the Troika
demands, with the dilemma “Support anti-social measures or Greece will
default” can’t last forever.
Alexis Tsipras: a leftist in power
Tsipras managed to form a very basic program — opposition to the
EU/IMF measures, redistribution of wealth, a restoration of welfare
rights—that much of the broad left opposition to austerity could sign up
to. And if his scenario plays out, expect Spain, Portugal, and
Ireland to be watching what happens closely. France enters into such
re-negotiations as one of the big kids on the block.
There is real suffering in the European south and legitimate
questions over the purpose and the methods of austerity programs. Europe
is now set for a debate over the balance between growth and austerity
in meeting the debt crisis, and Greece must do its part and reform so as
to be in a position to benefit.
Alexis Tsipras, Greece’s rising political star has a unique
opportunity to initiate a European revolution against austerity.
However, before he starts his revolution in Brussels, he has to start
reforming his own country and make all those who created the crisis take
responsibility for their actions. Other than PASOK and ND politicians,
he must finally deal with the civil servants who took bribes to do their
jobs, the businesses that ran in closed shops that they staunchly
defended, the middle class that exploited cheap migrant labor and the
unions who looted state utilities. Taking out their rage on the
political class is easy and cost free, yet if the mentality of the Greek
people doesn’t change, Tsipras will only have achieved one thing:
taking Greece out of the Euro.
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