The Troika’s Policy in Greece: Rob the Greek people and give the money to private banks, the ECB, the IMF and the dominant States of the Eurozone
On
20 August 2018, the Greek government of Alexis Tsipras, the IMF and
the European leaders celebrated the end of the Third Memorandum.
On
this occasion, the major media and those in power spread the
following message: Greece has regained its freedom, its economy is
improving, unemployment is on the decline, Europe has lent Greece 300
billion and the Greeks will have to start repaying that debt in 2022
or in 2032.
The
main claims are completely unfounded as Greece remains under the
control of its creditors. In compliance with the accords that the
Alexis Tsipras government signed, the country must imperatively
achieve a primary budgetary surplus of 3.5% which will force it to
continue brutal policies of reduction of public spending in the
social sector and in investment. Contrary to the dominant message
that Greece will not begin to repay its debt until some time in the
future, it should be clearly understood that Greece has been repaying
considerable amounts constantly all along to the ECB, the IMF and to
private creditors, and this prevents it from responding to the needs
of its population.
by
Eric Toussaint
Part
5 - What were the objectives pursued by the European leaders when
they set up the Memoranda?
Since
May 2010, the question of national debt has become a central concern
for Greece and for the rest of the Eurozone. The first program of
€110 billion, imposed by the Troika –comprised of the European
Central Bank (ECB), the European Commission and the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) – for the purpose of elaborating and executing
this programme, caused a sudden jump increase in Greece’s public
debt. This was also the case in various forms in Ireland (2010),
Portugal (2011), Cyprus (2013) and Spain. Those programmes had five
main objectives:
1) Bail
out the private banks with public funds so that they may avoid the
damaging consequences of their own private credit bubble, averting a
new major international financial crisis.
2) Give
to the new public creditors, who replaced the private creditors,
enormous coercive powers over the governments and institutions of the
peripheral countries in order to impose policies of radical
austerity, deregulation (eroding large numbers of labour and welfare
benefits), privatizations, and stricter authoritarian controls (see
the last point).
3)
Preserve the Eurozone perimeter (in other words, keep Greece and the
other peripheral countries within the Eurozone), which is a powerful
instrument in the hands of the multinational corporations and the
major economies of the Zone.
4) Bring
neoliberal policies to bear more heavily on Greece, in particular,
but also on the other Eurozone peripheral countries as an example for
all the European populations.
5)
Reinforce a Europe-wide (as much for the European Union generally as
for each member state) authoritarian form of governance, without
resorting to new experiments resembling fascist or Nazi regimes or
that of Franco, Salazar, or the Greek colonels (1967-1974). This
aspect is insufficiently taken into account because the accent is
placed on the economic and social repercussions. The authoritarian
tendency within the European Union and the Eurozone is a key issue
and corresponds to a deliberate goal of the European Commission and
big capital. It includes strengthening executive powers, expeditious
voting procedures, limiting or violating many rights, disregarding
voters’ choices and increased repression of dissent.
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