by Emmanuel Bouhalakis
It seems that more or less the entire planet is obsessed with Greece and whether it will abandon the Euro or not. Every day the analysts devote a lot of gray matter and time over their keyboard or i-pad to write about the woes and perils of Greece going back to the drachma. The analyses vary from scenes of civil war and massive panic spreading to other indebted countries as well, to orderly default with secret agreements between the Greek government and EU officials.
It is noteworthy that pretty much everybody that has something to say on the matter, from President Obama to President Putin, and maybe the leaders of Papua New Guinea and Sao Tome in a while, all agree on the fact that Greece must honor its commitments to the Memorandum it signed with the EU and the IMF.
Undeniably, a country that expects to receive loans with a better interest rate than the 40% now offered by the money markets ought to stick to its commitments and do whatever necessary to preserve its credibility. Those who argue in favor of the Memorandum claim that by adhering to its terms, Greece will again become competitive and it will restore its image worldwide thus enabling the money markets to lend the country again some day.
The recent elections however sent an entirely different message. Greeks are so badly shaken by 3 years of austerity that the two parties that would supposedly enforce the Memorandum received staggeringly low percentages. At the same time, the parties of the Left dramatically increased their own. On top of that and for the first time after World War II, an ultra nationalist party got 21 seats in the Greek parliament. These election results ought to seriously alarm not only Europe but the entire world. The reasons are obvious : widespread austerity and the harsh salary cuts and the subsequent tremendous drop in consumption that have ravaged the average Greek worker and business have already taken their toll in the electoral body.
The new elections scheduled for June 17 could alter some results towards the pro-European parties but still even if a government is made, the continuing enforcement of the Memorandum without any care for the more seriously affected will definitely result in the collapse of the next government as well and the swift default of the country. In the conscience of the vast majority of Greeks this would equal to treason as they would think that the Memorandum was deliberately designed so atrocious so as to force the country out of the Eurozone. This, naturally, would bring sentiments of rage and indignation.
Moreover, the next time a country decides to apply another Memorandum in case it is deemed unavoidable, it would be highly unlikely that the citizens of that country will want to accept it given the example of Greece.
So, before giving advice or suggesting what it would be better to do, perhaps a second thought on how quickly Greece should do exactly as told may prove to be totally beneficial for Europe as well.
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