Explaining the Greek paradox

Anti-austerity in the referendum, euro-currency and austerity in the national elections

by system failure

The big question after September's snap elections in Greece, is, why Greeks voted for parties who agreed to pass the 3rd memorandum? A memorandum which brings new catastrophic measures imposed by Greece's creditors when Tsipras surrendered to the Brussels-Berlin axis.

It becomes harder to explain the paradox, considering that in the referendum a few months earlier, the Greeks clearly voted against the imposed austerity, despite the war of propaganda and the closed banks. Moreover, just before the snap elections, they knew what to expect from Tsipras, as he had already surrendered and agreed to sign the catastrophic memorandum.

The most obvious answer, is that voters had limited options. Popular Unity, the party that came out of SYRIZA's split, expressing its most radical side, had no sufficient time to prepare and persuade the Greek public opinion that indeed has a viable plan for Grexit. Costas Lapavitsas, who joined Popular Unity, was one of the most committed to the possibility of a national currency for Greece. It seems that he was fighting almost by himself on this matter, trying to present a reliable plan.

What's most important and barely mentioned in the Greek media (mainstream and internet), is that the unprecedented percentage of people who didn't vote in the elections, came not only from the big disappointment of Greeks. It came also from the fact that a significant percentage of SYRIZA's voters in previous elections, were people who deliberately refrained from any electoral process in the past and attracted by SYRIZA's radical elements.

When Tsipras defeated, taking back all his promises, this part of the electorate lost again, easily its trust to SYRIZA, Popular Unity and the political system as a whole.

People lost their trust to the mainstream media too, something which became very clear in the week before the referendum. While the mainstream media propaganda did everything to make people vote for the new catastrophic measures, the result was clearly against these measures. People said 'NO' to the catastrophic austerity.

However, the propaganda seemed to be effective to a certain degree, concerning specific people. From a point and after, the media concentrated not to SYRIZA as a whole, but to the 'systemic threats' like Panagiotis Lafazanis, Zoe Konstantopoulou, Yanis Varoufakis and Costas Lapavitsas. Many of them joined Popular Unity later.

Generally, the media tried to "decompose" these people to the voters, as being totally unreliable, or, even having specific "behavioral" problems in some cases. All the "parades" of these people to the mainstream media had only such a purpose. It is something that the US media are doing right now, more or less, with Bernie Sanders, probably through a more sophisticated way.

The case of Zoe Konstantopoulou is characteristic. From the first moment as Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament, she took very important initiatives, concerning the investigation of big scandals under previous (PASOK – New Democracy) governments, as well as, the audit of public debt through the Debt Truth Committee. However, the corrupted media of the local oligarchs tried to manufacture ridiculous stories against her, in order to distract the Greek public from these important initiatives.

The most impressive in the whole story, is that the media suddenly re-discovered Vassilis Leventis, the leader of the Union of Centrists party. Leventis was brought to surface by the media already since the previous elections. Many of them interviewed him and tried to "fix" his image, as being a reliable "new" political force. However, during previous years, especially during 90s, the media were nearly making fun of him due to his particular character and way of expression.

This time Leventis passed "all the tests". Generally, in his interviews, he blamed the corrupted public sector and the previous political system for the situation in Greece, but avoided to condemn the corrupted banking system and its enormous responsibilities. He also appeared as a fanatic supporter of euro, fiercely attacking anyone who would dare to suggest that Greece should exit the eurozone to be saved. That was enough: he was "labeled" by the system as a serious and experienced politician this time, in contrast of the "crazy" radicals of Popular Unity, who proposed Grexit as a serious option. And guess what: he managed to get elected with nine seats in the new parliament, while Popular Unity didn't manage to get elected at all!

Of course, the main reason for which Popular Unity didn't manage to get elected, was because for five years the banking-media dictatorship brainwashed middle class with a propaganda of terror in case of Grexit. But the most impressive, is that the absolute catastrophe for Greece came within the eurozone and continues unabated!