Tit for Tat on a Tightrope!

Walking the span between the towers pre 9-11

What a week in politics! I have lost track of where it all started. The German complaints about the Greek Finance minister and their request that he is replaced, mostly due to his popularity and public support. Then there was that insulting interview mr. Schuable gave wherein he called his Greek counterpart naive. The entire Greek media system spent the week attacking its own government, I can't blame them as the government is passing legislation that will require private t.v. stations to pay a broadcasting license fee. In the midst of all this turmoil our new Minister of Justice agrees to sign the supreme court decision on Distomo making it an act of law. In laymen terms that means that after nearly two decades of waiting for the court decision to be implied, no previews minister would sign it, survivors of the Nazi massacre at Distomo can finally expect compensation. This will mean, as a first phase, the confiscation of German non diplomatic property in Greece, namely the Goethe institute building in downtown Athens. Then the Greek parliament reinstated the committee on war reparations that the Germans had begun paying in the fifties. When Germany asked Greece, for humanitarian reasons, to give her some time to get on her feet before making payment, Greece accepted making her the only country in Europe to not have been paid said reparations. What a mouthful. Then there is the matter of the war loan that Nazi Germany forced on Greece taking all her gold and anything else promising to pay her back. Then there is a chest of over 400000 Nazi documents of the occupation of Greece that were acquired from the US in 2006. Amongst these documents are Nazi accounts, detailed lists in fact, of the plundering of ancient sights and artifacts, of illegal Nazi excavations both of minerals and of ancient artifacts, and of the general looting of an entire nation. These are to be part of new claims against Germany under international law that clearly states how crimes against humanity do not simply erase after the passage of time but must be reinstated. Justice is to be served even by the next generation. Germans want to forget and move on but Greece wont let them. Can't let them. We need closure and recognition of the hideous Nazi war crimes against Greece. We still live in the aftermath and there are still those amongst our population that would willingly support another Nazi occupation today.

This lovely German couple visiting Greece decided to pay their share of the German occupational loan that amounts to 958 euros.

The end of the Euro...Eurequiem eh!

Greece battles for an end to austerity but falls on the deaf ears of the power elite led by Germany. Tomorrows' Eurogroup is a last ditch effort for the two sides to reach an agreement and to persuade the remaining members to get on board. Anything can happen and all is in the air. There is even the possibility that the currency that attempted to challenge the dollar could come to an end.

Greek Finance minister Varoufakis, shown in the foreground above has done something more than simply stand up to German pressures. He has spearheaded a popular movement that is slowly growing across Europe to put an end to austerity. Only the numbers presented by technocrats have been winning and even those have been doctored to look good. For the most part austerity has not managed to lower deficits but has instead shrunk economies and caused deficits to blossom. There is a nouveau povre class spreading across Europe. Germany herself has reached 15.6 percent population as statisticaly poor (posessing less than 1/3 of the national average income)

 

For years a rather corrupt elite has enjoyed major perks. Dijsselbloem stormed out of a joint press conference with Varoufakis in Athens back when there still was a Troika. The translator while translating Varoufakis opening statements had wrongfully used the words rotten foundation instead of  "shaky foundation" that the Troika stood on according to Varoufakis. There have been so many cover ups of scandals in Europe that to say something like the Troika is rotten, or corrupt, may well be accurate. Regardless mr. Dijsselbloom chose to be insulted.

So we all wait anxiously for the results of tomorows Eurogroup with Germany pressing and Greece refusing to go back to austerity. More austerity here makes no sense. We are already standing at numbers similar to the great depression. Enough of the bullshit. We end austerity now and get on with our lives. People over markets. 25% unemployment (official) not counting the long term unemployed and a cool 2.5 million below the line of poverty (1/4 of the population). Tick tock the euro countdown starts...

 

European Ultimatum (EU) vs The Alexis the Great plan...

We had grown accustomed in our little corner of Europe to the threats of our bigger partners every six months or so. The Troika would visit and the news would be full of stories of what Merkel or Soimble or someone else said about Greece. They would play this kind of good cop bad cop game with us similar to a hot then cold shower. Something of a torture that has now been stepped up to twice a week in an attempt to sway public opinion in little Greece. The newly elected government of Alexis Tsipras and his coalition partner Panos Kammenos do enjoy an overwhelming 75-80 percent support in the polls for the way they are handling negotiations. Today, Monday the 16th of February, was yet another meeting of the Eurogroup to discuss solely the Greek crisis and bail-out plan. Our newly elected leaders have a clear mandate not to continue the existing austerity plans, not to renew the memorandum. At the meeting in Brussels a joint statement was presented to mr. Yanis Baroufakis, the Greek finance minister, that he was willing to sign. It stated how all parties would continue to work to achieve a mutualy beneficial solution with respect to existing agreements and responsibilities and so on. Then this joint statement was retracted in favour of another that stated that Greece must sign the continuation of existing agreements (the memorandum) by Friday and there would be no other options. Needless to say mr. Baroufakis did not sign this. An ultimatum from conservative governments in Europe to lil ol Greece. Why does the beast make these sudden ill planned moves? Because it is fataly wounded and thrashing about. A Grexit would mean the end of the Euro, and German economic domination, within the year.
I will try to make this crystal clear. Already Europe has been dabbing in foreign affairs and until recently without the participation of Greece. Our former foreign minister, Venizelos, would not even bother to travel to Brussels for meetings having simply given his consent to whatever the majority decided. Our new government was four days old, not even sworn in yet, when the EU decided to make new sanctions against Russia over the situation in the Ukraine. Greece objected and vetoed any new sanctions until the next planned foreign ministers meeting in September. In terms of foreign affairs Germany is not a big player. She has a small standing army and no nukes. Greece has a huge standing army, 5000 modern tanks, 3000 German leopard and 2000 RussianT-150 and hundreds of  block 3 or 4 F-16s and eurofighters and mirage 2000. A powerful navy, if you don't take into account the listing German built subs. Both American and Swedish AWACS and Patriot and Russian S-100 anti-aircraft and anti-missile batteries along with some Greek weaponry like the Artemis anti-aircraft guns. The huge list of Greek military equipment makes Athens a much bigger player than Berlin. Berlin as a matter of fact has enjoyed US protection for so long that she does not have the kind of intelligence capability required to be a major player. The proof is in the German inspired ceasefire achieved in a 17 hours long deliberations marathon between leaders of  all sides in Minsk last week. It is not a lasting ceasefire as only Germany got what she wanted.
So this whole thing with ultimatums does not seem to be working for Merkel and her merry men. They keep showing up dressed respectably in their suits and ties while practicing dirty tactics. The whole thing is bound to blow up in their face. The original structure of the Euro currency needs to be rethought as it is without flexibility and favours the industrialized north. The free trade agreeement does not make up for lost income in pension funds from the importing nations to the exporting nations. Trade imbalances grow and the system favours the nation that can export the most. Manufactured products hide many forms of tax revenue before they go to market that benefit solely the producing nation. Now that there are no tariffs in place importing nations have no way to balance this inequality. Today Merkel and her gang of henchmen demanded that we appoint a new minister of finance in Greece as they refuse to speak to mr. Baroufakis. It is only part of that hot cold strategy... interference in a smaller countries internal affairs.
So after this Friday there is nothing. Oblivion! no Eurogroup, no European Commission, no more bailout plans, no more European Central Bank buying Greek bonds. The lines are clearly drawn by both sides and there is no possible solution without one side backing down. Saturday the Alexis the Great plan kicks into effect.  http://ellinomangia.blogspot.gr/2011/10/alexander-great-plan-unmasked.html

Irish finance minister shows up at Mondays' Eurogroup with a blackened eye. He later quipped "I thought we were going to gang up on Baroufakis..."

Dajselbloom tries sneaking past Baroufakis who has made his mark...

Notice the distinctive handshake styles, firm vs limp

SYRIZA-TRYLIZA tic tac toe

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?"

HARATSI YOK - TROIKA ΤΕΛΟΣ

No more haratsi tax, an end to Troika. The last week has been beyond what could ever be described with words. Four long years that could be described as a second Nazi occupation have come to an end! To re-cap the week a total must read:

Monday- election results are final as SYRIZA wins the election and forms a coalition government with ANEL a right wing party with an anti-memorandum mandate.

Tuesday - the new Prime Minister is sworn in along with his cabinet that includes members of the ANEL party. Mr. Tsipras, Prime Minister, opts for a civilian oath, without a priest, and is the first Greek P.M. ever to do so.

Wednesday - Outgoing P.M. Samaras is not present to hand over the Prime Ministers' office breaking an ongoing tradition since the establishment of the Hellenic Republic in 1821! There is such a ruckus on the social media and later in the press  that none of the departing ministers repeat the same mistake. Incoming ministers make announcements of the new direction they will be taking reversing descisions and agreements of outgoing ministers.These include the return of the minimum wage to 750 euros, the re-hiring of the illegaly fired cleaning ladies of the ministry of finance, the rehiring of all "illegaly" fired doctors, teachers, civil servants, and the return of all employees fired from public televsion, the end to all privatization efforts, the end of the privatization of the energy sector, the re-embersement of armed forces, police, firemen and women and coast guard according to the as of yet unemforced court order. WOW! The financial markets did not like that! Oh and the re-enstatement of the epicuric pension-given to low bracket pensions. Oh and the cancellation of the unfair Haratsi tax that had been renamed ENFIA.

Thursday - scare mongering continues in the press, the stock market and the news. The news so far has been too good to be true and certainly there is a shaking of resolve as some of us, the people, await the next Blitzkrieg to end our little southern party. The Vice President of the Vouli (parliament) makes a public appearance to make assurances of the stability of the Greek banking system.

Thursday - somewhat informal crash visit by mr. Martin Schulz president of the European Parliament. He is informed by mr. Tsipras that Greece has no intent of co-operating with Troika or continuing with old policies but will be instead renegotiating its debt as that is the mandate he was elected upon. Schulz visits the River Party but does not visit the ruling coalition partners ANEL.

Friday - still numb here in Greece from four days of impossible reversals of our fates and the Troika arrives for its bi-annual visit to ensure that austerity measures are being properly enforced. Instead of the bootlicking by Greek officials he has been used to Jeroen Dijsselbloem president of the Eurogroup had a meeting with Prime Minister. Tsipras and then with mr. Varoufakis Greek finance minister. For some strange reason he had to be told three times that there was to be no cooperation with the Troika. Only during the press conference when he heard mr. Varoufakis stating that the Troika is loosely legislated did he get the message. "You have killed the Troika" Dijsselbloem blurted off mike and stormed out the room. Watch on video - http://newsofthewired.blogspot.gr/2015/01/blog-post.html - This is the turning point for the psychology of the Greek public that slowly starts to feel the effects of sovereignty.

Friday - Kammenos, leader of the ANEL party and minister of Defense lays a wreath, from a helicopter, at Imia, sight of a near open conflict with Turkey, to honour the two dead Greek servicemen 19 years ago. He is the first defense minister to do so and the Turks,thinking it is still business as usual in the Aegean, send F-16s to buzz overhead and frigates to patrol below. Greece scrambles her own forces to force them beyond the border. Sovereingty in action.

Weekend - Varoufakis visits with his French counterpart. President Obama sends a simple message to show his support of Tsipra's government and its strategy of economic growth. Watch interview here:   http://www.greekcrisis.net/2015/01/obama-on-austerity-programs.html
"I think the truth is that you cannot keep squeezing countries that are in the midst of a depression." President Obama continues to say that growth strategy is needed as part of the solution.

Monday - Prime Minister Tsipras begins his visits with foreign leaders in Cyprus with President Nikos Anastasiades.

After a tumultuous change of government and agenda mr. Meimarakis, president of Vouli (parliament),  greets his replacement Konstandopoulou with a tulip bouquet and a smile.

Mr. Kammenos the incoming minister of defense and leader of the ANEL party lays a wreath in memory of the fallen from a helicopter over Imia. I think his expression shows that closure is finaly achieved.

Grexit Exit...Greek elelction results.

In short the elections are over and we have a new coalition government complete with cabinet all sworn in and making waves. There is no exit of Greece from the EU in sight and I do not think there will be. It has been a hectic three days with so much going on that it could not possibly fit into one single instalment. Here are some of the highlights of  the inauguration.

Some lovely pictures for you dear readers to gaze upon. Above is a picture of our new Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras visiting our Ecumenical Patriarch, head of the Greek church, Ieronymous. Alexis asked for the reverends' wish or ευχή in Greek. It is a happy coincidence for mr. Tsipras that ευχή is also the word used to ask for the reverands' blessing. Mr. Tsipras also informed the Patriarch Ieronymous not to bother dropping by for the usual swearing in of the P.M. as he will opt for a civilian ceremony.

In a civilian ceremony the Prime Minister is sworn in by the President not by the Ecumenical Patriarch. As you can see in the picture above President Papoulias shakes hands with Prime Minister Tsipras folowing his inauguration. Back in Canada I would have had to keep writing "the right honorable so and so". Anyways the law alowing this has been in the books since the eighties when Andreas Papandreou seperated the church from the government....no Prime minister has dared to try it though. Till now.  Canadians repatriated their constitution in the eighties. I guess we're all late bloomers after all.

Mr. Tsipras is not alone... having won the elections he is two seats short of a majority so he will be ruling the land as part of a coalition government. Mr. Kammenos, leader of the conservative Independent Greeks party or ΑΝΕΛ party is giving his full support. The two had the deal already worked out well before the electoral result and are the only anti-memorandum parties still in parliament from the 2012 elections see http://ellinomangia.blogspot.gr/2012/06/3-party-government.html. Funny how a marxist and a conservative can cooperate so well when they share a firm belief in democracy...

Out with the old and in with the new. Former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras opted to stay home and let his secretary hand over the keys of the Prime Ministers office. This may well be a world wide first if we do not take into account the BC Socreds. The residency was void of any government computers, files or anything else for that matter only the telephones were in their place. Even the vault was empty when mr. Tsipras entered. A very embarassing moment for Greek conservatives as a political culture does not alow for sore losers or for temper tantrums. His fear and terror campaign did not catch on with Greeks and his attempt at a smear campaign was abandoned early on. People here are just not stupid enough for these types of  election campaigns. It is three days after the election and we already have a government and a cabinet and our first meeting with European counterparts on Friday. The whole Grexit scenario is quickly deflating and some former ministers are looking at possible jail sentences for embezzlement. Be patient mr. Samaras, as we all know you are an accomplice and your turn will come soon.

The wild card or joker of this election was the river party. Sorry, the River party. Not like the Canadian Dinosaur party, I hope it is still active, the River was supposed to be taken seriously and was supposed to come in third. It failed coming in fourth right behind the neofascist Golden Dawn party by a tight margin of a few thousand votes. This inspite of enjoying the full and undisputed support of the entire Greek media establishment. Its candidates participated on every tv panel, first time for an unelected party. The River was announced in the news on a drizzly Thursday last winter as a new party enjoying 17% support in gallup polls, having been founded the day before. Talk about the big lie. Its leader mr. Theodorakis is a tv personna who travelled the land this last year with a backpack sputtering all kinds of catchy rubbish to attract the young vote or anything else he could. Just like a pick-up artist or kamaki as we used to call them here. Their motto, Let's Change it All Without Demolishing the Country!

 

One could not write an article about these elections without mentioning former Prime Minister Goegre Papandreou, son of the late Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou and grandson of  Prime Minister Goerge Papandreou, the late. Wow. Goerge decided it was time he founded his own party, named the Movement and ended up a few thousand votes short of entering parliament. This will be the first time in 92 years that the Greek parliament does not include a member of the Papandreou family.

Greek Election,The true face of terror...

Here in Greece we have our own way of dealing with extremists and their little groups. Last year we let our most dangerous inmate become our new most wanted. It was simple enough, they gave him a 48 hour leave and when he did not return on time he became the new face on Greece's Most Wanted. http://ellinomangia.blogspot.gr/2014/01/radioactive-pelletsavas-xiros.html

Then suddenly after a year in hiding the latest success story of the Hellenic P.D. came with the arrest of this 

 once at large terrorist hit man. It was hard to recognize him at first with his full blonde flock and prominent facial hair. A sort of salt and peppa look to throw off the authorites no doubt. But nothing gets past the houndogs of the Hell.P.D. who were onto his sent. Soon the man who was compared to the playmobil toy, his previous hairdo, was behind bars, along with  Zohan's The Avalon hairdo. Just goes to prove - you don't mess with the Zohan. 

Zohan...

                                               Savas Xiros...

So now that Savas Xiros is safely behind bars we can get on with life and elections. Our fearless Prime Minister, in his infinite wisdom and benevolent nature decided that it was a good time to elect a president. Seeing how it was the holidays and all and taking into account that gallup poll that said most Greeks would prefer to avoid national election he forced his hand. A real stupid bluff if you ask me. So although constitutionaly he could have waited till spring he decided to try for a new presidency now with the required 180 yes votes in the vouli, our house of commons. Of course despite all attempts, including outright bribery, he could not come up with that number, something that ammounts to a non-confidence vote. 
Can't blame him though as he had already agreed to a new round of taxes for the poor and tax breaks for the rich. People here have started to do desperate things like shutting down the courts in order to defend their right to own property. You can not simply take a Greek's house without a fight. Most of them have been in the family for generations. Maybe poor Samaras, our P.M. simply got tired of being the bad guy. So elections on January the 25th it is!

This is a very good picture of Antonis who is soon to be leaving his post as it is abundantly clear that he is going to lose the election. Some of his bigger blunders? The Haratsi tax - http://ellinomangia.blogspot.gr/2011/11/haratsi.html - the child tax and an entire tax system based on presumed income or "tekmirio" as it is called here.The more children you have the higher your assumed income that also goes up if you own a house, a car, an empty lot in the horio (village). So off to some pub to get drunk and remember the merrier days...

Above is a picture of Alexis Tsipras shaking hands with Paglo Iglesias. Tsipras is the leader of our left coalition party and posed to become the next Prime Minister on Monday. Pablo is the founder of a political party in Spain that sprung out of the antiausterity protests. We await Sundays election to see what the next day will be. Hopefuly it will be a better future for all of us. Stay tuned for more...