You may have heard of Christine Lagarde. She is the MD of the International Monetary Fund. You may have seen her on the television, berating the Greek government. With her shock of short, grey hair, you can’t miss her. She has now threatened that there will be “no period of grace” for the Greek government. She is demanding that the country, which is in a catastrophic financial position, repays €1.6b to the IMF and if they don’t they will be in default, sending Greece out of the Euro and quite possibly out of the EU, friendless and penniless. She has history with Greece. Just look back to her comments in 2012:
“Do you know what? As far as Athens is concerned, I also think about all those people who are trying to escape tax all the time. All these people in Greece who are trying to escape tax.”
Even more than she thinks about all those now struggling to survive without jobs or public services? “I think of them equally. And I think they should also help themselves collectively.”
How? “By all paying their tax. Yeah.”
It sounds as if she’s essentially saying to the Greeks and others in Europe, you’ve had a nice time and now it’s payback time. “That’s right.” She nods calmly. “Yeah.”
If this was a simple matter of right and wrong, we’d all be singing from Lagarde’s song sheet, but it isn’t and we’re not. Look at some straightforward facts:
Greece’s GDP has fallen by 25%.
There has been a 28% reduction of public sector workers.
Food consumption is down by 28.5%.
The average pension has been cut by 61%.
45% of pensioners are living in poverty.
The rate of unemployment is 26%, but among the under 25s it’s 50%.
What rich fats like Lagarde don’t get, or maybe just don’t care about, is that the people of Greece rejected austerity in the January election and the Prime Minister Alexis Tspiras has a mandate to end it. Short of breaking his word to Greek people who are the real victims of the financial crash, not the perpetrators, what is he to do?
Lagarde from the IMF and the EU leaders in Germany do not appear to be likely to be the first to blink, but why should Tsipras blink either? Happily, I am not him, but if I was I would tell the EU and the IMF that I would do a deal, but it would have to ensure the Greek people were protected, not attacked once more. And what has he got to lose? It’s not unimaginable that Syriza could go to Russia for help and who would put it past Putin to act?
My argument as always is that the Greek tragedy is about money, or a lack of it, but mainly its about the people of Greece who are yet again having their noses rubbed in it. It is up to Syriza to stand up for them and against the bullies of the IMF and the EU.
