Refugees from Syria are not the only ones living in Greece in a precarious situation that cannot even be saved. At a health center in Athens, with paper at the doctor's door: “We have overcome the barrier of patients. Excuse me for the inconvenience.” The anthropologist Panagiotis Grigoriou, affected by the flu, has deciphered an inexplicable message in the Greek Crisis blog. In Greece, all doctors have fees, the number of patients who can take care of Social Security on a daily basis, at most between 3 and 5, and all those who arrive afterwards – regardless of whether or not they pay for Social Security – have to pay out of pocket. If you haven't entered the fee or you run out of a doctor or pay. And more than three million people live without Greek insurance, forced to pay for any medicine, doctor or operation.
As he waited for new people in the doctor's room, Grigoriou saw him come out with his predecessor's anxious face. “Madam,” the doctor said, the computer system says that in March the Social Security will expel you.” “And what is going to happen to me then? I'm unemployed, doctor... Starting in March, will we find a way to be attended by a doctor?” “Sorry, ma’am, no one else God knows.”
The protests are continuous like Athens on the streets of other Greek cities, the agencies have distributed their eye-catching images, which have not been seen by Europeans living time with more important things. Farmers have brought thousands of tractors to roads and highways, the pictures show pastors fighting clubs with the police. Retirees have organised demonstrations for the lowering of pensions, seeing older people flying the police bus. Even the doctors of the public health system have gone out into the street, until the police have held the head of the doctors by the neck... So thousands.
The so-called troika – the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund – are the victims of the third Memorandum applied to the Greeks. Even though Syriza had just taken power in a referendum – Oxi! – the giant’s austerity plans had to be swallowed even harder. A year and a half later, as many smart economists have already advanced, Greece has come to the new port: despite the collapse of the welfare society, the country cannot cope with debts. The negotiations have become complicated and, if no agreement is reached by 20 February, Greece could remain outside Europe. Before the British started Brexit, did the Grexit happen?
As if in 18 months history had led Greece back to its place of origin, Alexis Tsipras says that he will not accept further cuts – the troika asks him to lower pensions for the elderly and increase taxes on families – and from Berlin the finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, has responded “or not Grexit.”
It has been seven years since Greece's public debt erupted and things have only worsened. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has just publicly acknowledged that, despite the adjustments, even more adjusted, Greece is going to explode under the weight of Greek debt. "The Greek economy will not be able to grow if the debt problem is not solved. (...) For its debt balance to be sustainable, there is no alternative but to largely forgive European creditors’ debts to Greece.”
The Greeks are exhausted
The IMF had already made self-criticism in 2015, even though it then conducted it in an internal writing. It stated that Greece needed a miracle in order to be able to pay the enormous debt accumulated by previous governments. In the absence of a miracle, the IMF research group proposed that creditors forgive debt and not increase fiscal austerity, which would allow the country to attract foreign investment and reheat the economy.
It was Germany that closed the door to this possibility, not least because its voters would not accept it. Bloomberg, a reference in the economic press, wrote: “The agony will not stop if the IMF does not force reparation. The IMF and the money depositaries – the Europeans and the Americans – committed original sins and errors and then kept them. Now it is not enough to say ‘mea guilt’: true responsibility requires IMF shareholders to honestly assume real losses. That is, to forgive Greece’s debts to the IMF and to leave Greeks and Europeans looking for a solution to this disorder.”
The main European leaders are not of the same opinion, but they are all in the wake of the aggressive attitude that Wolfgang Schäuble has set in recent years from Germany. Now, moreover, seeing the wind that has invaded the extreme right in Europe, Schäuble can proudly say that the tactic of paying his debts to the Greek Dutch bears good fruit to the German right, believing that he manages to close the road to the far-right AfD.
With Germany in this very violent position, and with the Troika calling for further cuts in January, how can we understand that Tsipras will not accept any more cuts? Remembering the 2015 summer movie, you might think that taking the game to the limit these weeks is trying to soften your rival -- in the end accepting the main parts of the new deal. That is a possibility.
The other thing is that the Syriza Government really does dedicate itself to the Grexit hypothesis. Many citizens have already surrendered to their hopes for Europe: According to a survey by the study firm Alco, most respondents believe that it has been wrong to leave the drakma and accept the euro in several autonomous communities. The Greek personalities are also pushing Tsipras to leave the European Union and negotiate directly with the creditors the accumulated debts in the country.
Yanis Varoufakis has asked US Prime Minister Efimerida ton Syntakton to declare bankruptcy and start negotiations from scratch: “The preparation of these two paragraphs is the only way to prevent Tsipras from having to rewind in the short term and for Schäuble to carry out its long-term plan.” It is mistrustful of other more moderate politicians who have promised from Europe to try to improve things: “Those lords know how to lie or lie when they’re not fulfilling their promises.”
One third of the Greeks live from poverty, unemployment reaches 23%, emigration is brutal and the state is not just a name. At the same time, on the other side of the border, you see Turkey showing forces, Turkish military maneuvering in the vicinity of the Greek islands. Among the Greeks, he also tells about the threats of the Turkish Army. Europe will also be aware of this.
Koronabirusaren lehen olatuaren erdian ginela, hitz ederrak entzun ziren G20-ko Finantza ministroen zein Nazioarteko Diru Funtsaren partetik: Hegoaldeko herri pobreak laguntzea ezinbestekoa omen zitzaien eta horretarako zorraren ordainketa une batez gelditzea onarturik zuten... [+]