In a time when in Paris Marine Le Pen is
“Ante Portas”, when xenophobic populists are marching through the
streets of Dresden, when in London the UKIP sets the tone for an ever
more anti-European hysteria, and when in Helsinki the Finnish government
becomes the most ardent proponent of more austerity for Greece, for no
other reason but the fear of a success of the “Real Finns” at the next
ballot box, the Greek people have given a clear signal, voting against
more austerity and for the European values of democracy, the welfare
state, tolerance and inclusive societies.
They have rejected the ruling by
European and international technocrats. They have said no to their
national oligarchic establishment that has led the country into the
current situation. But they also resisted the siren calls of Golden
Dawn. They have given their confidence to an untested party, with no
experience in government, a party that has presented an electoral
programme proposing better governance, more democracy, greater social
justice and an end of austerity policies that have destroyed the economy
and created unprecedented hardship while the public (and private)
debt continued to increase. The Greek voters have sent a clear message
to the rest of Europe: they want to be part of Europe, they can’t bear
more austerity; they need a sustainable solution to their debt problem;
they want to be a respected partner in the European Union and play an
active role in the common search for a Greek and European recovery.
Europe should not see the victory of
Syriza as a threat. Instead, it should be seen as a clear signal from
the people and as an opportunity for Europe as a whole to reconsider its
crisis response, which has already lead the continent into what may
become a decade of deflationary stagnation, even with the last
intervention of the ECB. There is no easy solution to the deep crisis in
Europe but one thing is certain: continuing with policies that do not
work, because they concentrate exclusively on fiscal prudence, is the
opposite of what must be done. We must give priority to growth,
investment, employment and redistributive policies.
Anyone guided by realism will recognize
that Greece cannot, at the same time, serve its tremendous debt burden
and recover economically and socially. Insisting on servicing the debt
without a strong economic recovery might be popular in some European
capitals but it will just not work. Debts that cannot be paid remain
un-payable even if creditors continue to insist that it should be paid.
The debt crises in Germany in the last
century offer great lessons in this respect. After World War I, the
victorious powers insisted that Germany should pay reparations
independently of its economic performance. The results are well known:
hyperinflation in the twenties, brutal austerity in the early thirties
resulting in the rise of Hitler who immediately stopped servicing any
foreign debt when he came to power.
After World War II, the Allies
recognized that Germany had to become prosperous first and should pay
afterwards. That reasoning lies behind one of the most generous debt
restructuring agreements in history in 1953, when more than 50% of the
German debt was written off, repayment was stretched out over more than
half a century and debt payments were made conditional on the existence
of a trade surplus. The last payment of debt from World War I was
actually made as late as in 2010 and payments at no time exceeded 5% of
German export earnings.
Read more: Thank You Greece!
