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The soap opera
in Greece continues with
Germany and France tugging on opposite sides of the rope, and support
for Golden Dawn, an alleged neo-Nazi
party rising in the wake.
French president François Hollande is on the sidelines, not wanting another battle with German
chancellor Angela Merkel who has her own
set of problems.
However, the French Prime Minister
says Give Greece
More Time.
Jean-Marc Ayrault, the prime minister,
taking a clear swipe at those
in Germany insisting on a hard line against Athens, warned that a Greek exit from the eurozone would be “unmanageable”
and could be “the beginning of the end of the European
project”.
Speaking in an interview with
the French news website Mediapart,
Mr Ayrault said: “We
can already offer [Greece] more time . . . on the condition that Greece is sincere
in its commitment to reform, especially tax reform.”
France’s
chief fear is that a compounding
of the eurozone crisis would turn the spotlight of the financial markets on itself and the country’s public debt, which is set to exceed 90 per cent of GDP.
France Set to Implode
France wants to give Greece more time because it needs more time. Of course
France will not admit that,
instead insisting it will meet
its deficit targets, primarily by hiking taxes.
Forget about it. France has no chance of meeting its deficit reduction
targets because ridiculous tax hikes in the middle of a recession,
while simultaneously making it harder for businesses
to fire workers are exactly the wrong things to do.
Instead of meeting its targets, I propose Hollande's policies have made it highly likely France is poised to implode. It should not take more than a few months, if that.
Troika Soap Opera
Please consider Paris focuses on Athens’ Achilles heel
Greek media have called
the negotiations – which
have seen late-night
sessions at the finance ministry
and departures at short
notice of senior EU and IMF officials – the
“troika soap opera”.
“The troika had to
put up with two previous governments’ attempts to delay, dilute and mislead on the reform programme, so the
pressure is quite understandable,” said a former government economic adviser.
Yannis Stournaras, the finance minister,
had what Greek officials called a “shortlived
confrontation” with the troika
last week, refusing to make further cuts in pensions and salaries. After
that, the heads of
mission left, giving Athens an extra week to wrap up the alternative measures.
Meanwhile, Antonis
Samaras, the prime minister, has been unofficially seeking a two-year extension in talks with European leaders, hoping to promote a modest economic recovery by 2016. The country’s
recession is deeper than forecast
– with the economy projected to shrink by almost 7 per cent this year and another 1.5 per cent in 2013 – and he argues that is causing
unprecedented hardship
for ordinary Greeks.
Opposition to the latest round of cuts, which will
knock another 20-30 per
cent off pensions and public sector salaries, is already mounting,
with public sector unions
due to hold a 24-hour strike
on Wednesday.
One opinion poll published
at the weekend showed the
leftwing Syriza
coalition, which calls for abandoning
the reform programme, narrowly
ahead of Mr Samaras’s
conservative New Democracy party for the first time
since the June general election. Several polls put the far-right
Golden Dawn party, which is
steadily making gains among newly impoverished
voters, in third place.
Grappling with Neo-Nazis
While the bickering between France, Germany, and the Troika
continues, Greece grapples
with shadow of Golden
Dawn
Golden Dawn, which won 7 per cent of
the vote in June’s election
and entered parliament
for the first time, is on a roll, pulling established parties to
the right – including Corinth’s
socialists.
Polls suggest the party
has gained ground since the election as anxiety deepens over a possible
Greek expulsion from the
euro. A poll this week showed a near doubling in the number of people expressing “positive
opinions” about Golden Dawn, up from 12 per
cent in May to 22 per cent now.
In Corinth, where immigrants sacked
from jobs in local vineyards
and wineries because of
the recession are blamed
for a rise in crime against
property, the party polled
almost 10 per cent – one of its highest scores across the country.
“They went round
the villages saying that
if they got into parliament they’d call for every
immigrant to be deported,”
says Panos Damalos, an activist with Anti-Racist Initiative, an immigrant support group.
“There is no such person as a legal
immigrant,” says Mr Kassidiaris,
a former Greek army commando whose approval rating soared after he slapped
a female Communist parliamentary candidate on a breakfast television talk-show.
Yet Golden Dawn has also tried to build an image of
social responsibility, through
regular food
distributions to needy Greeks
registered with the party
and by providing a service to accompany
pensioners to the bank in
neighbourhoods where muggings – which they blame on immigrants
– are frequent.
Maria Tsalpatura, a 75-year-old retired
schoolteacher, says she calls Golden Dawn every month before she goes to collect
her pension. “They
come on time and they’re very
polite, I think they offer a real
service,” she says.
This cannot
possibly end well, whether or not Greece gets a time extension.
Policies have driven Greece straight into the hands
of extreme radicals on
the right and left, both
of which have had enough of the Troika and
Germany.
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