On Sunday 20th
May this year, I wrote an item on this Blog under the
heading of, “The dinosaur of economic dogma”.
The theme of the piece was to argue how fear would be employed, by
the International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and the
European Banking Authority, now apparently known as the “Troika”,
as a weapon, “to frighten the voters of
Greece into electing those parties who support German dictates of
further austerity”. With the result of the
election in Greece now confirmed, it seems that the tactic of
injecting fear into the democratic process has achieved the
objective, namely by ensuring that New Democracy has gained a
victory, albeit by a small margin, and will be invited to take the
first attempt to form a government. Of course it remains to be seen
whether Antonis Samaras and his New Democracy party can or will
deliver the promise of renegotiation of the bailout package, and what
will happen should Merkel retain her “no renegotiation of the
bailout agreement” stance. In the short term at least the worries
of the Troika, have been averted as Alexis Tsipras and Syriza have
only managed to achieve second place in the polls. However, the
problems of the Greek people have not gone away. Soup kitchens on the
streets of Athens and other cities across Greece, food banks for
people who have no jobs and little prospect of finding work,
temporary foster centres for children and all the other odious
ramifications of austerity remain and in all probability will
intensify over the coming months. This time at least, the fear
generated by Merkel, Lagarde, and other “European leaders” has
resulted, in an election result which satisfies the vested interest
of banks, speculators and the Troika. This may be for them, a pyrrhic
and very short lived victory.
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