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After the
results in the first round of the French presidential election, the
Greek PM, Alexis Tsipras, was among those who rushed to congratulate
Emmanuel Macron. We don't know if Tsipras truly believes that Macron
will help Greece in case he wins the election in the final round
against Marine Le Pen.
If he does,
that means he still lives with the complete illusion that something
could change in favor of Greece. We have to remind Mr. Tsipras that
Macron, as member of the Socialist Party from 2006 to 2009, was
appointed deputy secretary-general under François Hollande's first
government in 2012, and Minister of Economy, Industry and Digital
Affairs in 2014 under the Second Valls Government.
So, we have
to remind Mr. Tsipras what François Hollande did to help Greece
escape from the path of the neoliberal catastrophe imposed by the
Troika (IMF, ECB, European Commission) creditors: absolutely nothing.
All he did
was to run behind the decisions of the Brussels-Berlin axis and the
IMF mafia. We shouldn't expect anything different from Hollande with
people like Macron in his government.
Macron is
certainly the 'darling' of the ruthless neoliberal establishment.
With the banker in charge for the next years, the European Financial
Dictatorship will have all the time to finish the brutal experiment
in Greece. The Brussels bureaufascists and the Berlin
sado-monetarists will be celebrating right now.
Indeed, as
Theautomaticearth
reports:
...
it’s obvious the IMF are not done with Greece yet. And neither are
the rest of the Troika. They are still demanding measures that are
dead certain to plunge the Greeks much further into their abyss in
the future. As my friend Steve Keen put it to me recently: “Dreadful.
It will become Europe’s Somalia.”
An
excellent example of this is the Greek primary budget surplus. The
Troika has been demanding that it reach 3.5% of GDP for the next
number of years (the number changes all the time, 3, 5, 10?). Which
is the worst thing it could do, at least for the Greek people and the
Greek economy. Not for those who seek to buy Greek assets on the
cheap.
But
sure enough, the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) jubilantly
announced on Friday that the 2016 primary surplus was 4.19% (8 times
more than the 0.5% expected). This is bad news for Greeks, though
they don’t know it. It is also a condition for receiving the next
phase of the current bailout. Here’s what that comes down to: in
order to save itself from default/bankruptcy, the country is required
to destroy its economy.
And
that’s not all: the surplus is a requirement to get a next bailout
tranche, and debt relief, but as a reward for achieving that surplus,
Greece can now expect to get less … debt relief. Because obviously
they’re doing great, right?! They managed to squeeze another €7.3
billion out of their poor. So they should always be able to do that
in every subsequent year.
The
government in Athens sees the surplus as a ‘weapon’ that can be
used in the never-ending bailout negotiations, but the Troika will
simply move the goalposts again; that’s its MO.
So, we don't
have to be prophets to guess what the neoliberal puppet, Emmanuel
Macron, will say about Greece. He will say something like 'Greece has
done much, but there is still much work to be done', as the whole
neoliberal priesthood repeats for Greece during the last seven years
of uninterrupted destruction.
We don't
know what Marine Le Pen will say about Greece in case she gets
elected, but we honestly don't expect to see much difference, as she
is simply the reserve of the establishment.
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