A bulwark against disaster
The government is leading the country to a divisive referendum that doesn’t even have a formal subject. It is doing so amid conditions of bankruptcy, through a process which has brought the intervention of the Council of Europe for the first time since the 1967 military dictatorship. At the same time the government itself is annulling the reasons for which it called the referendum in the first place. While invoking supposedly patriotic sentiment, so that Sunday’s vote may be compatible with the Greek Constitution, it also argues that nothing will change with respect to Greece’s position within Europe and that negotiations with its lenders will proceed normally, irrespective of the outcome. In reality, the outcome will demonstrate whether or not Greece wishes to remain in Europe, use the euro as its currency and keep its democratic system.
Society is already experiencing the first consequences of this kind of political opportunism and there is no doubt that what the government has in mind is far worse, especially in case of a “No” as it this would be seen as a decision by the country’s majority to turn its back on Europe. While SYRIZA and Independent Greeks are betting on this, this is also the way everyone outside of Greece will read it and statements by foreign officials attest to this. Whatever hope there might be regarding the country’s difficult and gradual rescue now depends entirely on the clear prevalence of a “Yes.” End of story.
Greek PM Alexis Tsipras and his crowd are still deceiving people, just like they did before rising to power and then during the five months which has led to total destruction. Europe was not shaken, the international system was not rocked, the markets did not dance along to the rhythm of the Cretan pentozali dance, as Tsipras claimed they would. Nevertheless, the government seems undeterred. They are now turning to emotion in an effort to persuade people that their troubles will soon be over, as negotiations will continue after the referendum, as if never interrupted and that the solution is at the gates. None of this is true. They are lying once again and even if they themselves attempt a renegotiation, the other side will most likely be unwilling to sit down at the same table with them.
The current government’s target has always been a rift with Europe and its value system, in order to install, undisturbed, their own regime of impoverishment, an autocratic, partisan state in which opposing voices are silenced.
A “No” is the final step toward implementing this plan, which would of course develop through a return to the drachma. A “Yes” victory will not only demonstrate the majority’s wish to safeguard its economic and social rights within a European framework; it will also act as a bulwark against their plan. No matter how much they’d like to, Tsipras and his people cannot ignore the pressure of the people’s will.
