Time to swallow your words, Mr. Juncker, and find a solution together with the Greek people, not against them.
Greeks have voted “No”. They have voted “No” to accepting an agreement offered by “The Institutions” on a given date (whether that offer was still valid or not at the time of the referendum does not change the question, they were asked to cast their vote on the content, just in case). Though the substance may be complex, the question was expressed in very clear and unequivocal terms. Yet the very expensive translators working for “The Institutions” may have proven themselves unworthy of their big salaries (paid, inter alia, by Greece) because Mr. Juncker, and many others in the Eurogroup, understood that the question really was: “Do you want to remain in the Euro and in the EU?.” The Greek government, and many others, tried desperately to explain that the translation was wrong, but Mr. Juncker didn’t want to hear it.
Let’s hope that when the UK referendum is held, the question, which will be of a general nature this time (and in English!), will not be subject to the same kind of intentional distortions by Mr. Juncker. He may be tempted to tell the British people that they are not voting on the question (likely to be along the lines: “do you want the UK to stay or leave the EU?”) but on specific technical aspects of the reform of the treaties which can always be ironed out using the reverse technique to the one he used for the Greek referendum.
Where are we now? The Greek government, representing the Greek people, says it wants Greece to stay in the Eurozone and, obviously, in the EU. The Greek people have directly said they don’t accept the terms of the agreement offered on 25 June 2015. Now, will Juncker and the other Eurogroup members fight to force Greece out the Euro just to prove that they were right in their deliberately misleading interpretation of the meaning of the referendum? Or will they be reasonable, swallow their words, and work actively and in a bona fide way to find a path forward that respects the expressed opinion of the Greek people and of its representatives?
And the whole thing has to be done within realistic parameters, respecting the interests of the creditors (formerly known as “partners”) as much as possible, minimising the cost to European taxpayers and making sure that Greece really understands that many things have to change in that country. Difficult? Certainly. Impossible? Certainly not, if there is political will. The EU has found imaginative solutions to comparably complicated problems, and has not hesitated to exercise flexibility and enforce asymmetric conditions when there was no apparently better solution.
Meanwhile, in a surprising turn of events, the IMF published a report that stated the very point the Tsipras government was making: the Greek debt is simply unsustainable and will have to be restructured, including write offs. Rumours abound that some in the IMF’s hierarchy wanted to withhold the release of the document until after the referendum and only went ahead under US pressure, but this is another issue.
As the question of debt restructuring is now likely to receive general support (a tough negotiation on the terms is, nevertheless, ahead) and the disparate positions on the other main issues of contention—taxation and pensions–seemed to be converging right before the breakdown of the negotiations, maybe we are not so far from an acceptable solution after all.
Now, urgent solidarity and statesmanship are needed if we wish to avoid images of unrelenting misery and despair in Greece that would last for decades in our collective memory –inter alia as a proof of the stupidity, stubbornness, and political selfishness of many European leaders.
The Greeks have spoken. The ball is now in the Eurogroup’s and “The Institutions’” court (specially whether debt restructuring is to be included in the talks). European leaders are now conducting frantic consultations. It would be very interesting for European citizens to know how exactly the leaders weigh the pros and cons of dropping Greece, or make it possible for her to stay in the euro. Certainly geopolitical considerations, which are above even economic ones, will play a role. But we will never know the inside story.
Will they be up to the challenge?
The editorial team of Katoikos
