Greek Bailout 3: The Director’s Cut

There had been a brand new factual filmic blockbuster running on our TV screens in the summer of 2015. Shown live on BBC, Sky and RT News, it was called: Greek Bailout 3. And wasn’t it compulsive viewing? The protagonist featured in the starring role (Alexis Tsipras from the governing Syriza Party) swiftly turned into his own antithesis as he dramatically sold out the Greek people with European Union (EU) dictated austerity measures hastily pushed through parliament. This came directly after Syriza had called a referendum in which that same Greek populace overwhelmingly voted against that same austerity. The contradiction and confusing rationale being that the Greek people want to remain in the EU and the eurozone but at the same time don’t want the reforms that come with remaining. One can safely argue therefore that the EU and the eurozone have failed. How come there are supposedly no euros in Greek banks but trillions of euros in German banks when all member states are supposed to be involved in one European single currency? Aren’t Germany’s euros Greece’s euros and vice versa?

Why not call a final referendum once and for all as to whether Greece should leave the EU/ eurozone in light of the bail-out terms and subsequent loss of sovereignty? Like many European nations believe, it is common sense for Europe to cooperate as a trading entity. In making this statement though, it must be kept in mind that the monetary dominance of such institutions by some member states, or should I say directors, (Germany in this case), should be legislated against.

On another note, it is not just best practice for European countries to have trade agreements with their continental counterparts, it would also be good practice to have a standard European Health Service free at the point of access.

Turning back to Greece, running parallel to the protagonist in this fascinating Greek drama was the German antagonist Angela Merkel. Yet, her bit-part cronies were also desperate to get in on the act. We saw the arrogant and obnoxious Finnish Prime Minister, Juha Sipil? (my mum would have called him a funny-looking bugger), the Latvian Prime Minister, Laimdota Straujuma, and the Ukrainian Prime Minister, (Ukraine is not even in the EU) Yatsenyuk all get their ten penneth in. How did the above manage to become centre stage in this EU debacle, one wonders? Some would argue that those nations are not even geographically placed to be classed as European. Yes, those who pontificate regarding austerity but do not lead austere lives themselves threw fuel on the fire of protestations outside the Greek parliament as Athens – the birthplace of democracy – smouldered.

No good nail-biter, of course, is ever quite complete without good old-fashioned coinage (euros in this instance) featuring; and there seemed to be ‘billions of it’ but not for them as far as the Greeks were concerned. Greece being cast as the pauper amongst kings in that failed group of nations called the EU, had nothing it could call its own but the burden of heavy debt. Then dramatically, we all held our breath as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) made their on-screen entrance to state that Greece’s debt was ‘highly unsustainable’. This was in light of the fact that Greece had already sold its soul (public assets which include land) to its creditors. It can be safely said that many Europeans were uncomfortable with the manner in which Greece was about to be pillaged again. It had already been plundered by wealthy tax evaders. Nevertheless, the real villain of the piece and cast as a sort of smiling assassin was European Central Bank (ECB) president, Mario Draghi, who made his debut late in the picture. The Greek audience was about to gain even more interest.

In conclusion, after thirty-eight of his own MPs had voted against the bailout deal, the Greek PM should have concentrated on clawing back some credibility and, to use one of our local idioms, tell the failed EU to ‘whistle for their euros’ and return Greece to the drachma where at least the Greek people would be masters of their own destiny. Greece is rich in ancient cultural history and the associated tourism will sustain as the chief economic component for thousands of years to come – long after oil has run out. Tsipras might have agreed to the 86 billion-euro bailout for the collapsing banks in 2015, but it will eventually be the Greek people themselves who will decide whether further fiscal obstacles can be overcome. After all, it’s the failed European financial institutions that enabled this situation to occur in the first place. In the meantime, perhaps Tsipras should have gone one further in not adhering to EU protocol when refusing to wear a tie for conferences and suchlike and reverted to a more refined proletariat gesture. Instead of waving the white flag, sticking two fingers up to Angela Merkel and the discredited European Union would have been a much more effective semaphore.