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Greece, Opinions

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NOBODY is enjoying the sight of what is happening in Greece, but the truth is that the Greeks are the authors of their bleak economic future. Greece had been living beyond its means for decades, under the illusion that it could carry on financing its ever-growing deficits and profligacy with more and more borrowing from abroad. But the party had to end and now Greeks are staring at a future of deprivation, record unemployment and no prospects. 

The latest measures announced by the PASOK government on Wednesday, just three months after another package of austerity measures, provoked a general outcry, with all the big unions announcing the staging of strikes and opposition parties calling on the people to resist. “Not a step back,” declared the leader of the communist party Aleka Papariga, a comrade and fellow traveller of our President. “We must make life hell for them,” she declared. But it was not just the Left that attacked the measures. The right-wing New Democracy party also opposed them.

The government has been forced to impose its toughest measures yet by the Troika, which has been turning the screw on Greece. Then again without the funds released by the Troika, the Greek state would have been bankrupt, unable to pay any wages or pensions. This of course is not the reason that Greece is being kept afloat; if it went bankrupt and defaulted on its loan repayments, banks in France and Germany, its main creditors, would collapse, turning the eurozone into an economic disaster zone.

As we have written before, the Troika’s main objective is to buy time, keeping Greece afloat until the banks of France and Germany are in a position to cope with the inevitable default. But delaying the inevitable will also depend on the Greek people, over whom the PASOK government seems to have little control, accepting the measures. This is appearing increasingly unlikely, given the severity of the measures that will be imposed. 

For how long will the deeply unpopular Papandreou government be able to keep the growing social unrest under control? Greece’s unions have never been known for their responsible behaviour and will have no difficulty mobilising workers and the unemployed against the government; they could bring the country to a complete standstill. The situation is set to become worse, with the possibility of the country falling into anarchy and the government being unable to govern. Would the Troika be satisfied with such a development? Because this is where its ultra-severe measures will lead to.