EUROZONE:
GREEKS VOTE, THE WORLD WATCHES
ATHENS n a scruffy district of the Greek capital 200 metres from a heavily patronized soup kitchen and a 15- minute hike from the glorious Parthenon, a lone policeman guards the door at the headquarters of Syriza — which in English calls itself the Coalition of the Radical Left.
A much larger police presence may soon be required to prevent civil unrest across Greece, no matter which party wins Sunday’s election.
The ballot was required after a supposedly pivotal vote in early May only deepened the country’s political stalemate and economic paralysis, further scarring an already traumatized and despairing electorate.
The second vote, which is too close to call, is now regarded as a referendum on the country’s future in the troubled eurozone and on a tough economic memorandum — the hated mnimonio — that Greece signed with the European Union in return for bridging loans.
As Mark Carney of the Bank of Canada said Thursday, Greece and Europe are in a dire situation with implications globally, including for Canada.
A reckoning with far- reaching consequences is imminent because Syriza and the centreright New Democracy and its prospective coalition partners both eagerly throw around words such as “catastrophe” and “disaster” but have totally different solutions for a debt
Icrisis fed by colossally excessive government borrowing and complicated by an economy that will have shrunk by nearly 30 per cent between 2007 and the end of this year.
Syriza, previously a marginal Soviet- style group of a dozen left- wing factions now led by the handsome, charismatic 37- year- old Alexis Tsipras, says that with the support of several other left- wing coalition partners it can force the EU and the International Monetary Fund to cut Greece some more cheques, delay or cancel its commitment to cut $ 14 billion in public spending and restore the minimum wage to previous levels.
Tsipras’s older, dowdier opponents created this debacle by spending billions of euros that Greece got on easy terms when it joined the common currency 11 years ago. Part of their solution is to try to renegotiate hundreds of billions of dollars in loans, too, but at the same time to continue with a sweeping austerity program the likes of which no western European country has dared to implement for more than 60 years.
Trapped between these competing ideologies are millions of Greeks who have seen their jobs and pensions evaporate, along with their access to much else that they have become used to, such as free or low- cost prescription drugs. Lurking in the background is a treasury that has been receiving dwindling tax revenues and looks as if it may run out of money sometime next month.
In a dilapidated building bustling with casually dressed young people who all seem to smoke and sometimes address each other as “comrade,” it is Dimitris Papayannakos’s job to explain Syriza’s intentions.
“Our people have 40 per cent less money in their pockets than they did two years ago and they pay 30 per cent more taxes,” Papayannakos said. “We have homelessness. We have starvation. We have suicides. It is a time when people cannot live ... We must renegotiate.”
With nothing left to offer as collateral and a surging national debt that already exceeds GDP, Syriza is gambling the EU must protect the euro.
“Sooner or later, as the crisis deepens, the EU will change its policies,” Papayannakos said.
“They cannot ‘ not’ negotiate. They must negotiate because that is what has always happened. The European bank should take a more energetic part in this. It is the lender of last resort but it is not lending. We need policies that are friendly to people, not just to companies and banks.”
Those who oppose Syriza’s populist policies are certain that the EU will reject Greece’s entreaties, forcing Syriza to reestablish the old drachma currency at a fraction of the value of the euro it would replace.
“I don’t know how this plays out because no party is strong enough to govern, but I hope that the vote will be against Tsipras and Syriza because with them there will be certain consequences,” said Kostas Farkonas, who writes about digital developments for a Greek magazine. “Many Greeks want to believe that they can be saved so they will vote for Syriza despite some terrible lies.”
Elaborating on the same theme, Athena Sigala, a Red Cross worker handing out New Democracy campaign literature above a subway station, said: “What Syriza tells voters is an illusion. Syriza cannot change anything. They claim they want to keep the euro but if they try to change everything they say they are going to change, it will surely bring us back to the drachma.”
While acknowledging this possibility, waitress Maria Stathopoulos said the situation had become so dire she did “not think that Greeks will vote logically now. They will vote for a revolutionary way.
“We are already paying too much for housing and electricity. There is a 23- per- cent tax on food and drinks. How much more do we have to pay? We need a government of the left to bring some balance. It is time to see something different in Greece.”