Prime minister Tsipras and his finance minister Varoufakis must have set a new world record for meetings with counterparts of a newly elected government. Sworn in a week ago Friday they began meetings the very next day. They had a meeting with a Prime Minister or a minister of Finance of another EU nation or a top representative of the EU every single day. Cyprus, Italy, France where all visited for meetings with their respective Prime ministers by our own PM mr Tsipras. Varoufakis has visited the finance ministers of France and Germany. I have left things out like the European Comission, the president of the European Parliament and so on. Too much to write about on a single blog. Our government has kept its promise and refused to kneel to external pressures. The culmination of this game of nerves was the announcement by the European Central Bank that it will no longer be accepting or buying Greek bonds cutting off Greece from a 10 billion euro supply. The answer came spontaneously that very same day and into the night...
Power to the people seems to be the strategy of the newly elected government in Athens. After one of the most bizarre weeks in politics ever, full of historic firsts, people took to the streets to show their support. Unlike demonstrations in the past this one did not have a political focus but instead was born of the social media on the internet. People of every age, families with their children, seniors, many representatives of a wide range of organizations, marched infront of the Greek parliament, vouli, filling Syntagma square and the surrounding streets. There was for once no violence or tear gas or police presence. Just the people urging their newly elected government to continue demanding their rights and to not back down to external pressures. There can be no accurate estimate of the number of people as it was unlike other demonstrations a fluid one with people leaving and new arrivals taking their place. Considering that the press did not mention any estimates though, and taking into account the anti-SYRIZA and pro memorandum stance of the big networks, it is most likely in the hundreds of thousands.
I realy wish I could go into more detail but I fear everyone will lose interest. We await the Eurogroup meeting on Wednesday where Athens will be pressured to sign an extension to the existing memorandum and accept the final 8 billion or so payment. Both our Prime Minister and our Finance Minister have stated in no uncertain terms that there will be no renewal of the memorandum nor will Greece be asking for this money! Expect that there will be demonstrations of support in every city of Greece. Greeks do not respond well to threats or blackmail. Funny just how tight the timeline is. Tuesday we will have our first vote of confidence in Parliament and Wednesday is the Eurogroup deadline for our line of credit at the European Central Bank. Putin has already legislated and offered a ten billion euro line of credit to Greece. Above is a photo of the swearing in of Parliament last Saturday. Sunday was the first session and the vote for the speaker of the House. Ζοε Konstandopoulopu was elected with a record 235 votes. Mr. Tsipras made an impassioned speech showing Greece and the world that we have returned.
Oh and Greece is also re-openning the war reparations issue as they have never been payed. Along with the occupational loan that Nazi Germany forced on Greece, that had been paid in gold, along with interest, guess what the sum is... 310000000000 euros (310 billion). When paid it will mean that those relatives and those still surviving who lost their homes and loved ones to the occupational forces will finaly see the settlements they were awarded in the past. More on this in a seperate blog though as you may be asking "why were they never paid money that they were awarded in a settlement?"
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