They called it deal, agreement, treaty, honest compromise, bailout. They dressed it up with fancy words like “social justice,” “fair taxation,” “growth prospect,” “debt haircut.” What they never called it was what it truly was: a Memorandum of Understanding. SYRIZA won the elections promising an end to Memoranda. Less than six months later, they voted the harshest of the three Memoranda Greece has signed since 2010.
The word that brought in power the first ever leftist government in Greece looks like the word that will tear it down. The myth that Greece can stand on its feet outside Europe for the next few years is shattered. A lot of work and a long period of time is needed before that can be achieved. For the near future, unfortunately, we need to rely on those damn “M” things.
After arbitrarily dividing Greeks in the “pro-Memorandum” and “anti-Memorandum” camps, Alexis Tsipras and his party came to power. They promised tearing up the Memoranda and stop the “pro-Memorandum” perpetrators. They continued their divisive rhetoric up until the ambiguous referendum resulted in a loud “No.” Leftist media spewed tons of hate against those who voted “Yes,” calling them traitors and willing slaves to the Germans.
However, a few days later they realized they had to choose between a new Memorandum and a disastrous bankruptcy and Grexit. They chose the first. Even though it requires truly painful measures.
Yet, 39 SYRIZA Ministers and MPs voted against the new Memorandum. They obviously wanted to pull out of Europe without having a plan on how the country’s needs would be financed. They resorted to vague talk about many alternatives, without naming one.
Panagiotis Lafazanis, leader of the party’s so-called Left Platform, and some others wanted to live their communist myth in Greece. Their bubble bursted in the worst possible way. After their proud, defiant, rebellious rhetoric, they finally bowed down to the reality of economics. The couch Che Guevaras were defeated by reality. And history.
Allegedly, the alternative Lafazanis plan was to grab the remaining 22 billion euros from the Bank of Greece reserves — an arbitrary number, because it doesn’t really exist — pay public sector salaries and pensions and “give the money to the people.” First he said the money is at the State Mint and they would get it from there. Then he said the billions are hidden in various places across Greece. The ingenious plan was to use the funds to cover the country’s financial needs for two to three months while printing drachmas.
Lafazanis denied these allegations. He said that was not the alternative plan he was shouting about. Of course, he never told anyone what the alternative plan was, which would bring growth and prosperity to Greece outside the Eurozone and Europe in general.
The Greek phrase “leftist with rightist pockets” proved to be true in the early morning hours of July 16. The proud Marxist rebels refused to resign and give up their fat paychecks and perks. They chose to remain in their seats, saying they will support the government even though they don’t support its policies(!) They are against the new Memorandum but they would gladly enjoy the new loan money from the “blackmailing Europeans.” To call this kind of stance hypocrisy would be an understatement.
The fact that this person is (at the hour of writing) the head of the Ministry of Productive Reconstruction, Environment and Energy says a lot about Greek politics.
Alexis Tsipras has every right, and duty, to kick out of the government all the Ministers who are not willing to implement the program. He doesn’t need an opposition within his party and Greece doesn’t need the perpetual naysayers to everything that remotely looks like it’s going to help the country put an end to its chronic pathogenies.
The Left in Greece has always been the opposition. Things looked very simple and easy when SYRIZA lawmakers were sitting in the opposition seats. Before they came to power, they were promising to put an end to the Memoranda and cut the Greek debt in half. They promised wage raises, tax cuts and social justice. When in power, they realized that the first two are impossible in the near future. As for the third, they can work on it now that negotiations are over.
This is the end of the “anti-Memorandum” rhetoric and the end of the nasty division practices SYRIZA and other parties were based on. It is the time of truth and the end of unrealistic promises. From now on, Greek politicians cannot ride the “anti-Memorandum” train. From now on, they will have to have solid proposals and a realistic approach.
And from now on, Greek citizens must be more careful and vote for those who promise less and not for those who promise everything. It’s also time they decide how and where they want their country to be and send all false saviors where they belong.
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