Tag: griekenland

Uitslag Grieks referendum: 61 procent zegt NEE

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Het merendeel van de Grieken heeft zich gisteren in een referendum tegen de voorstellen van de Europese geldschieters uitgesproken. Dat blijkt uit de einduitslag die vannacht rond 2.00 uur door het Griekse ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken bekend werd gemaakt. Het nee-kamp won met 61 procent van de stemmen. De opkomst was met 62 procent erg hoog.

De Grieken hebben de Europese Unie voor een lastig dilemma geplaatst. Ondanks waarschuwingen uit Brussel dat Griekenland uit de eurozone dreigt te vallen, kwam een verrassend ruime meerderheid van de Grieken in opstand tegen de hervormingseisen van de EU en het IMF. In een referendum over de voorstellen, stemde 61 procent ‘nee’, terwijl 39 procent ‘ja’ stemde. De EU-leiders staan nu voor de keuze water bij de wijn te doen of het te laten aankomen op een Grexit, een vertrek van Griekenland uit de eurozone.

De uitslag is een zege voor premier Alexis Tsipras, die de Grieken had opgeroepen zich tegen de ‘vernederende’ afslanktherapie van Brussel te keren. Aanvankelijk werd verwacht dat het kantje boord zou worden voor Tsipras en zijn linkse Syriza-partij. Veel Grieken leken op het laatste moment bedenkingen te krijgen over zijn onderhandelingstactiek uit vrees dat Griekenland de eurozone zou moeten verlaten. Maar uiteindelijk had de afkeer van het EU-beleid, dat zware offers van de Grieken heeft gevraagd, toch de overhand.

‘De Grieken hebben laten zien dat zij zich niet laten chanteren’, reageerde Panos Kammenos, de Griekse minister van Defensie en leider van de nationalistische Onafhankelijke Grieken, op de uitslag. Hij vertolkte daarmee hetzelfde sentiment als minister van Financiën Yannis Varoufakis, die de EU-leiders vlak voor het referendum van ’terrorisme’ beschuldigde. Volgens hem hadden ze de geldkraan voor de Griekse banken opzettelijk dichtgedraaid om de Griekse kiezers het mes op de keel te zetten. Varoufakis noemde het referendum een ‘heilig moment’ dat moet aantonen dat de ‘gemeenschappelijke munt en democratie naast elkaar kunnen bestaan’. Volgens de Syriza-leiders is de EU verworden tot een kille cijfermachine die geen rekening houdt met de noden van de Griekse bevolking.

Lees verder op de Volkskrant >>>

Greece Again Can Save The West

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Like Marathon, Thermopylae, Plateau and Mycale roughly 2,500 years ago, Western freedom again depends on Greece. Today Washington and its empire of European vassal states are playing the part of the Persian Empire, and belatedly the Greeks have formed a government, Syriza, that refuses to submit to the Washington Empire.

Few people understand that the fate of Western liberty, what remains of it, is at stake in the conflict, and, indeed, the fate of life on earth. Certainly the German government does not understand. Sigmar Gabriel, a German vice-chancellor, has declared the Greek government to be a threat to the European order. What he means by the “European order” is the right of the stronger countries to loot the weaker ones.

The “Greek crisis” is not about debt. Debt is the propaganda that the Empire is using to subdue sovereignty throughout the Western world.

The Greek government asked the collection of nations that comprise the “democratic” European Union for one week’s extension on the debt in order for the Greek people to give their approval or disapproval of the harsh terms being imposed on Greece by the EU commission, the EU Central Bank, and the IMF with Washington’s insistence.

The answer from Europe and the IMF and Washington was “NO.”

The Greek government was told that democracy doesn’t apply when creditors are determined to make Greek citizens pay for the creditors’ mistakes with reduced pensions, reduced health care, reduced education, reduced employment, and reduced social services. The position of the Empire is that the Greek people are responsible for the mistakes of their foreign creditors, and the Greek people must pay for their creditors’ mistakes, especially those mistakes enabled by Goldman Sachs.

As has been proven conclusively, the Empire’s claim is false. The austerity measures that have been imposed on Greece have driven down the economy by 27%, thus increasing the ratio of debt to GDP and worsening the financial situation of Greece. All austerity has accomplished is to drive the Greek people further into the ground, thus making debt repayment impossible.

The Empire rejected Greece’s democratic referendum next Sunday, because the Empire doesn’t believe in democracy. The Empire, like all empires, believes in subservience. Greece is not being subservient. Therefore, Greece must be punished. The Persians Darius and Xerxes had the same view as Washington and the EU. The Greek government is supposed to do what previous Greek governments have done, accept a pay-off and allow Greece to be looted.

Lees deze column van Paul Craig Roberts verder op IPE >>>

The past five days have been worse than all that has gone before

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Sir, Memory. No memory of life before the financial crisis; politics has dominated it ever since. But now I can hardly remember life before Friday night. Fear. I am terrified of tomorrow, all I now see is black. Uncertainty, leading us through our days, every remainder of hope for a brighter future being destroyed by the minute. I look at my three-year-old niece, I envy her ignorance, I envy her age. I am 21 years old and the past few days I feel tired by life. A referendum that supposedly gives me the right to define my future, seems to have taken it away.

There are hundreds of people queueing at the ATMs and petrol stations, there is silence in the streets, people’s faces are frozen. This is the reality since Friday night. There are, and have been for a long time, people literally starving. However, it seems that instead of their situation improving, the rest of us will have no different a fate.

Families and friends divide in Yes and No camps. We are called to exercise our democratic right by voting on a referendum while having no tangible explanation of what will follow each decision. I see everyone I know ready to take this huge responsibility without even being prepared to do so. I notice us, arguing endlessly, everyone supporting their stance fervently, ego dominating minds and words, while having no clue as to what is really at stake.

Lees deze ingezonden brief verder op de Financial Times >>>

Waarom we anders over de crisis en Grieken zouden moeten denken

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Wat is de waarheid van de Griekse crisis? Hebben de ‘strenge’ Duitsers een punt dat de Grieken niet moeten zeuren en gewoon door moeten gaan met bezuinigen of ligt het genuanceerder? De Grieks-Nederlandse Jorgos Nikolidakis vertelt het echte verhaal.

Het is iets meer dan twee maanden geleden dan ik een artikel over de Griekse crisis schreef. Eigenlijk heb ik helemaal geen zin om me met de politiek en het internationale bankwezen bezig te houden. Dat is niets voor mij, simpelweg, omdat die wereld op z’n zachtst gezegd ‘niet okee’ is! Bah! Ik wil me met vakanties bezighouden, met positiviteit, mensen het mooie van Griekenland laten zien: dat is mijn ding! Ik vind het leuk dat heel veel mensen fantastische vakanties in Griekenland doorbrengen.

Aan de andere kant, wil ik mezelf, als Griekse Nederlander beschermen tegen de leugens die voorbijvliegen, verspreid door gerenommeerde Nederlandse kranten en tijdschriften. Het is triest om zoveel leugens te zien! Ik hoop dat de Nederlanders wakker worden en beseffen dat alles over Griekenland voor 90% leugens waren om bepaalde doelen te bereiken.

Nederlanders moeten eigenlijk een voorbeeld aan de Duitsers nemen, ja u leest het goed! Op 31 maart is er door de Duitse televisie (ZDF) een Tv-programma uitgezonden dat in Duitsland voor enorme commotie heeft gezorgd en vooral begrip voor de Grieken. Je wilt niet weten hoe gelukkig ik door dit programma ben geworden, zo ook miljoenen andere Grieken overal in de wereld! Het programma heette ‘Die Anstalt’ (= de instelling) en werd door ongeveer 5 miljoen Duitsers bekeken en door meer dan 1 miljoen Grieken via youtube in Griekenland.

‘Die Anstalt’ is een programma dat veel politieke satire bevat, waarbij vaak onderbelichte waarheden naar boven drijven. Deze keer ging het programma over de Griekse economische crisis. Wie kent inmiddels de vele stereotypen niet waarmee de Grieken de afgelopen vijf jaar gebombardeerd zijn door media (en politici) in Duitsland en Nederland.

Lees verder op Follow The Money >>>

The Greek crisis has led Brussels into the business of regime change

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Brussels should not be in the business of making or breaking governments. But that is nevertheless the dangerous point to which the European Union’s mishandling of the Greek crisis has brought it. The union “made” the present Syriza government in January this year by refusing to offer its predecessor, New Democracy, the softer terms on debt which would have allowed it to stay in office. But that could be put down to happenstance. The situation now is different, with European leaders openly campaigning for a yes vote in the Greek referendum due to be held on Sunday. A yes vote would almost certainly lead to the fall of the Syriza government. If this is not regime change, it comes perilously close to it, and it is a profoundly damaging development for the European project.

It is worth asking again at this critical stage who is most to blame, because that question is so often asked in the wrong way. Alexis Tsipras and his colleagues are amateur politicians who in normal circumstances would have been fulminating from the opposition benches without worrying about what to do if they achieved power. It is hardly surprising therefore that, cocky and erratic, they have made mistake after mistake.

But what do you have on the other side? What you have is an assembly of mature politicians with years of successfully navigating their own national politics and those of Europe behind them. A great repository of skill and expertise, which has produced what? One of the worst, if not the worst, crises in the history of the union. This is why mournful pronouncements of both parties being at fault are so unbalanced.

Lees het commentaar van The Guardian verder >>>

This euro is destroying the European dream

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The deficit fetishists of Brussels and Berlin must cut Greece some fiscal slack and work to promote growth.

On Sunday the Greeks vote while the rest of Europe holds its breath. No matter how clunky the wording on the ballot paper, everyone knows what’s at stake. This is a moment of great peril, not only for the euro but for the European project itself.

If Greece votes no, it’s hard to see how it can stay in the euro, which will represent the most grievous blow in the 16-year history of a currency whose momentum was always meant to be irreversible.

If yes wins, and Syriza duly falls, the victory for the European powers could prove to be pyrrhic. Too many will believe that Brussels, and more pointedly Berlin, engineered the toppling of a democratically elected government. Once Alexis Tzipras had, admittedly, put a gun to his own head by calling Sunday’s vote, the EU in effect told the Greek nation that the leaders they had chosen just six months ago were unacceptable and had to be removed. The moment will be cited ever after as proof that the EU’s approach to democracy is akin to Henry Ford’s view of consumer choice: you can have whatever colour you like, “so long as it is black”.

Lees deze column van Jonathan Freedland verder op The Guardian >>>

Europe’s elites want regime change in Greece

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Greece’s confrontation with the euro overlords will shape resistance to austerity – and the future of the whole European Union.

It’s now clear that Germany and Europe’s powers that be don’t just want the Greek government to bend the knee. They want regime change. Not by military force, of course – this operation is being directed from Berlin and Brussels, rather than Washington.

But that the German chancellor Angela Merkel and the troika of Greece’s European and International Monetary Fund creditors are out to remove the elected government in Athens now seems beyond serious doubt. Everything they have done in recent weeks in relation to the leftist Syriza administraton, elected to turn the tide of austerity, appears designed to divide or discredit Alexis Tsipras’s government.

They were at it again today, when Tsipras offered what looked like almost complete acceptance of the austerity package he had called a referendum on this Sunday. There could be no talks, Merkel responded, until the ballot had taken place.

There’s no suggestion of genuine compromise. The aim is apparently to humiliate Tsipras and his government in preparation for its early replacement with a more pliable administration. We know from the IMF documents prepared for last week’s “final proposals” and reported in the Guardian that the creditors were fully aware they meant unsustainable levels of debt and self-defeating austerity for Greece until at least 2030, even on the most fancifully optimistic scenario.

That’s because, just as the earlier bailouts went to the banks not the country, and troika-imposed austerity has brought penury and a debt explosion, these demands are really about power, not money. If they are successful in forcing Tsipras out of office, a slightly less destructive package could then be offered to a more house-trained Greek leader who replaced him.

Hence the European Central Bank’s decision to switch off emergency funding of Greece’s banks after Tsipras called the referendum on an austerity scheme he had described as blackmail. That was what triggered the bank closures and capital controls, which have taken Greece’s crisis to a new level this week as it became the first developed country to default on an IMF loan.

The EU authorities have a deep aversion to referendums, and countries are routinely persuaded to hold them again if they give the wrong answer. The vote planned in Greece is no exception. A barrage of threats and scaremongering was unleashed as soon as it was called.

Lees dit topartikel van Seumas Milne verder op The Guardian >>>