Greek crisis and disorientation operations update

by system failure

Disorientation operations from the bank-occupied media in Greece in the midst of economic crisis continue unabated, bringing in front line every other issue, except the real data concerning the Greek economy. Assistants in this effort, for their own reasons, are the European - especially German - political establishment and some eurozone officials.

The “success story”, awards from abroad and the false “turning” of Berlin

The Greek government tried to persuade about the “success story” of Greece after Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samara's trip to China and Azerbaijan, that is, recovery is imminent, Greece returns to growth and better days are coming. Very difficult to do, as the reality experienced by millions of Greeks is completely different. The dominant bank-occupied media in Greece were mobilized, as always, for this new propagandistic disorientation effort, and the arsenal of propaganda was enhanced by some German media with articles praising Samaras. Wolfgang Schauble also supported this operation by praising Greece and the countries which adopted devastating austerity measures. Berlin, through the political duo in power Merkel-Schäuble, announced cheap loans from the German development bank, in order to persuade about the willing to abandon austerity policies and prevent any unpredicted reactions in south.

Surprisingly, and despite the praise for Samaras, Greece has been excluded in the first phase of these loans - with the rather trivial excuse that the country has no similar banking institution in the standards of the German development bank - although it is currently the country which suffers most, with the highest unemployment rate in the eurozone and the economy going from bad to worse. The mainstream media, even in Greece, rushed to speak for the allegedly turning of Berlin to development policies.

But the reality is quite different. There is no intention to abandon cuts and harsh austerity measures and the experiment will continue using Greece as a lab rat. The Germans simply buying time until German elections, and if reelected, Merkel will certainly insist on the same destructive austerity policies. Besides, this policy line is confirmed again by the head of IMF, Christine Lagarde, which also congratulated Greece for the "achievements" but said that the country should continue the "reforms." Lagarde appeared to disagree with the tax cuts, pointing the direction for Greek government which was thinking to reduce tax in restaurant-bar services, which involves mainly small businesses in Greece. This is another proof of IMF policies, absolutely aligned with the interests of large corporations, which enjoy large tax exemptions.

The big question is, why Germans insist in those policies and how far they are willing to go. An indication can be obtained from some recent news according to which, the German car industry BMW has decided to transfer the production of carbon fiber for the i3 electric car in a Washington DC area of the U.S., because natural gas there costs almost four times less and the cost of electricity is almost half.

Therefore, large corporations push for new measures for shrinking further labor costs and full deregulation of the labor market and thus, if the experiment "Greece" end abruptly, the German political leadership afraid that they will not ever be able to impose the same policies in the heart of eurozone and in Germany itself, causing the “evacuation” of the country from big companies which will migrate to other countries with cheaper operating and/or labor costs.

We must not forget that, on top of neoliberal economic pyramid are always the banks, which through the latest decisions, control more and more the flow and amount of money within the eurozone, gaining an increasing power to create artificial crises in future, in order to impose specific interests and policies. The fact that the Greek government had to get European Central Bank's approval for a recent plan to regulate mortgages concerning primary home owners, is only a small sample.

The anti-racism law game

A new show is played by the government partners on the occasion of the recently suggested anti-racism law. New disagreements are staged between the center-left PASOK – Dimokratiki Aristera (DIMAR) and the neoliberal right Nea Dimokratia, the parties that form the governmental coalition, due to the results of new polls. As the electoral landscape in Greece is fragmented and no one actually believes in the possibility of one-party government, the current governmental memorandum block is trying to stay in power by any means, in any case.

As the latest polls showed a slight rise of the extreme nationalists of Golden Dawn and fall mainly of PASOK, the government decided to bring for vote from the Greek Parliament a new anti-racism law, in which, a specific measure that sets out of law political parties whose members exhibit racist behavior, is not included. This fact was exploited by PASOK and DIMAR to show their particular sensitivities, supposedly due to their ideology, suggesting a more stringent anti-racism law, in order to attract voters from the field of anti-Memorandum Left, while Nea Dimokratia, which includes parliamentarians from the far right, took the opportunity to open the door and try to attract voters of Golden Dawn showing that it is not willing to retreat easily in some issues.

The show this time was targeting the total power recuperation of the domestic governmental Troika and disorientation of public opinion from the real picture of Greek economy, with the help of the controlled mainstream media, as the anti-racism law was presented as top priority issue. Indeed it was, but could be solved with the direct voting of an effective law by the vast majority of MPs, without becoming a pretext for political games and disorientation operations.

Another target was to bring anti-Memorandum Left in an endless debate on the occasion of the anti-racist law, in an attempt to attenuate its consistent devotion against destructive measures imposed by the lenders.

Guns, national myths and... "cops"

Suddenly, all these days, the mainstream media discovered a big problem with armed MPs, and the question about whether MPs should or should not carry guns within or outside parliament, or even if they have to be totally "disarmed", became a top issue, as if there was no issue before the "success story" of Samaras and this problem was strangely came in surface after his trip to China and Azerbaijan.

The disorientation operations continued, as the mainstream media highlighted as major issues the statement of DIMAR's MP Maria Repousi, regarding weather a historical fact of the recent Greek history is actual or a national myth, and SYRIZA MP Nikos Voutsis' statement using the word “cops” for police officers, setting everyday discussions around them.

The fact which they tried to bury once again

The true picture which the mainstream media rushed to bury once again, or at best to pass with a quick and short reference, came from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data for the Greek economy, and from the official Public Debt Report announced by the Greek Ministry of Finance.

The main conclusions, based on Public Debt Report, is that on March 31, 2010, shortly before the adoption of Memorandum, the central government debt was 310.3 billion euros and today it has fallen by only about 1 billion (309 billion euros), while the collapse of the country's GDP due to the austerity measures by 25% since 2008, has made the debt again unsustainable.

According to the OECD predictions, GDP will fall by 1.2% in 2014 for the seventh consecutive year - in contrast to the unfounded predictions of the Greek government and the European Commission claiming that GDP will grow - and public debt will skyrocket at 175.1 % of GDP in 2013 and 180.6% of GDP in 2014.

Therefore, there is nowhere a “success story”, because no one in reality is interested for the recovery of Greek economy and the turn to development. Instead, it seems that the worst is yet to come, as politics of destruction will continue on the lab rat "Greece", until full achievement of the desirable conditions in each region of the forming European neoliberal economic empire.