No end in sight to the absurdity

For 17 months the Greek public has put up with a government that has seen all of its predictions fail, one by one. Every attempt to meet its targets, which have also been constantly revised, has failed. It has gradually discredited all of society?s productive sectors and nevertheless continues to address the masses via the safe distance of the TV screen. In a patronizing tone, the Greek political class does nothing but spread fear.

The nation has been subjugated to the whims of Brussels, or more accurately Berlin. In fact the government and its mouthpieces never cease to admit to this each time they need to impose a new set of painful measures. Cabinet has become the executive arm of the troika — the debt-wracked country?s international creditors — and the Socialist ministers pose as rebels who put up desperate fights against the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund, only to succumb a few days later. Soon they will adopt the outside directives while assuring the crowds that they are doing so to save the country. The Aris Velouchiotis syndrome still reigns supreme inside PASOK.

Also incomprehensible is the fact that the Socialists have no qualms about reproducing the communication policy of Greece?s foreign lenders — like when they say that German citizens are being called upon to bail out the Greeks. Senior officials do not even bother to explain that the Germans, as well as other European citizens, are being called upon to dig into their pockets not in order to rescue Greece but, rather, their banks, which were foolish enough to invest in Greek bonds because they yielded twice as much as German ones.

The banking system in Europe and beyond was based on the assumption that state bonds are a safe investment, especially when these are issued by a eurozone member. Greece has defeated this certainty after violating every European Union rule for 30 years.

Greece failed to meet its membership obligations. Now these are being brutally imposed in a tiny time span under the threat of expulsion from the euro area. Greece?s political, economic and academic elite holds that Greeks are keen Europhiles. That was indeed the case as long as Greece got tons of European money. Now that society is sliding into poverty and depression, the European vision is starting to fade.

We should not be surprised if we were to see the birth of a movement advocating a return to the drachma. In that case, PASOK would go with the trend (and back to its roots). There is no end to the absurdity.