19th
Thessaloniki Documentary Festival
The
documentary describes the European Central Bank’s (ECB) financial
interventions in countries such as Italy, Ireland, Portugal, Cyprus
and Greece. Featuring well known academics, politicians, and
journalists, it analyzes the relationship between European Union
institutions and big corporations and banks.
Screening:
Sunday, March 05, 2017 - 22:00, room TONIA MARKETAKI
The
revealing documentary by Aris Chatzistefanou deconstructs the myth of
the "Europe for people" and exposes the real face of a
peculiar financial dictatorship that is being imposed on its members
through financial coups in order to force them to apply cruel
austerity and the most extreme neoliberal policies.
Chatzistefanou
describes his surprise when he met - to collect information for his
documentary - with the head and coordinator of the "shadow
council" which conducts meetings every month before the meetings
of the European Central Bank (ECB) board of directors:
From the
first day, Handelsblatt's Norbert Häring, has been set the president
and coordinator of the council. He participates in every meeting,
without the right of voting. When I met him a few days ago in
Brussels for the filming of the documentary This
is not a coup, I was prepared to face another
passionate supporter of the European institutions. Speaking at phone,
however, he warned me that his view does not express the decisions of
the shadow council. But there was nothing that could prepare me for
the "bombs" he would attempt to plant at the euro-system
foundations.
At the
start of the interview, he told me that “It
is scandalous the fact that a central banker, like Stournaras, can
state publicly that he had blocked the attempt of the [Greek]
government to create a parallel currency, without ending in prison.”
He also said that “This time, we
don't have a silent coup”,
like in the case of Cyprus, Italy, or, Ireland, “but a real coup
that violates the responsibilities of the central bank and interferes
to the political life of a country.”
According
to Häring, ECB is able now to decide whether will sustain a
government in power, or, will let this government collapse under the
pressure of the markets - and that's exactly what happened with
Berlusconi administration in Italy. He says that “The national
central banks consist part of the ECB system and have a terrifying
ability to blackmail governments.” Through the exchange of big bond
packages, they provoke big interest rate fluctuations, forcing
governments to give them anything they want in return. At the same
time, “they continuously give information to the ECB, through which
it can blackmail the governments.”
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