By Maria Negreponti-Delivanis *
One would have hoped that the Kathimerini conference, which brought together the period, would shed light on a multitude of unanswered questions. One would have expected that the former prime ministers, and the other participants there would have rushed to explain what exactly happened to them and signed, one after the other, the condemnation of their country. By the end of the conference, the Greek people would finally understand how it is that, after 15 years since the start of the memoranda, which supposedly came with the IMF to save Greece, our country is now in a worse situation than in 2009, as the following summary data reveal, without the slightest doubt:
*The debt, after 15 years of inhumane austerity, but also a complete rupture of the economy, has more than tripled (from 110 to 404 billion euro).
*The entire public property has already been sold off and the operation continues.
*Two of the three main production sectors, agriculture and industry, have been decimated, so that the economy is unacceptably dependent on tourism
*Greece, from the top of the Balkan countries, is now at the bottom, below even Bulgaria. Note that the rapid growth of the Balkan economies was achieved with their national currency!
It goes without saying that the relentless but unanswered questions, which will surely be recorded in black letters in the history of the future, do not refer to the signing of the memoranda. Because, if there was debt, there would be memoranda. Instead, they relate to three national suicidal behaviours directly or indirectly linked to them:
The unforgivable commitments/concessions they signed:
*First, waiver of debt netting, even though it was known that Germany owed us from the occupation, an amount far exceeding our own debt.
*Second, selling off public property.
*Third, a lethal degree of austerity, which precluded the possibility of growth, as it did, and which impoverished the Greek people.
*Fourth, acceptance of English law to adjudicate any dispute between Greece and its creditors.
*Fifth, consensus, on the disastrous tardiness of the debt haircut (because the creditors asked for it, so as not to endanger German and French banks). The delay has been fatal for our own social coffers.
*Sixth, in 2015, the Greek people were given the opportunity, through the referendum, to answer whether they wanted to continue the suicidal regime into which the EU and the IMF had condemned them or not. And they ruthlessly answered NO, which was however forged into a YES.
Mr Georgiou and the memoranda problems
Note: It is innumerable and, in principle, unbelievable what Greek prime ministers and others have signed in this foggy period of time. Due to lack of space, to add here what, indeed, unacceptable things our own government officials agreed to sign, I refer those interested to my book “The whole truth about debts and deficits and how we will be saved” ( Dimitri and Maria Delivani’ Foundation and Janos Publications).
The inconceivable indifference and inaction they subsequently displayed:
– While they ought to have been aware of all the information, based on which Greece’s fiscal deficit jumped suddenly from 9% of GDP to 15.5%, they did not react at all. On the contrary, with their acquiescence, and probably with the actions of some of them, they completely covered up for Mr Georgiou, who, as it was leaked, had received an order from outside to inflate the deficit. The German and French banks, which held Greek papers at the time and were panicked, lest they should suffer losses, imposed on vassal Greece the inflation of this deficit, which justified inhuman austerity, the invasion of the IMF, and ultimately the destruction of an entire nation.
– On the pressures that he received (officially acknowledged by Mr. Tsakalotos) from outside, in order to influence the Greek justice system in order not to condemn Mr. Georgiou, they didn’t react at all. In no way, apparently, they were concerned that his possible condemnation would relieve the Greek people from part of the martyrdom, which pushed many into despair and suicide. But they were not surprised at all at how our friends Europeans felt it was their right to pressure governments of a democratic country and a member of the EU to influence the judiciary. Is it therefore justified to suspect that this tactic has been tried since then? And whether or not Justice was affected is a matter that I do not know. In any case, the long course of this trial, with contentious decisions, which did not end after 14 years, in a truly final decision, is natural to create a lot of doubts and suspicions. Like, of course, the hypothetical certainty of how brilliant the fate of our country would be, with a different approach to this undoubtedly dark court case.
– After a year of untold suffering for the Greek people, part of whom was literally fed with garbage, the former head of the IMF, and probably the author of the first memorandum, Olivier Blanchard, publicly acknowledged that a mistake was made in the calculation of the austerity dose, which proved to be many times the necessary. After about 13 years, the assurance may not be credible, but, yes, there was no reaction from the Greek governments at the time. So I titled my article on this subject, which was published in the newspaper Le Monde: ‘A forbidden debate’. No official appeared to know anything about the above statement (which was then followed by similar others), no effort was made to correct the memorandums. It’s a silent fish. The same apathy of those responsible is also observed at the international high-level meetings, where Barack Obama (chapter 22 of his memoirs) reveals that the French insisted several times on the need to secure the necessary conditions in Greece, allowing development (i.e., limiting suffocating austerity), to pay the debt, but the Germans were unwilling (and our own did not demand and were not concerned).
The missed opportunity
* Mrs. Zoi Konstantopoulou, under the Syriza government, had the exceptional initiative, first of all, to set up a committee, in order to shed light on the crime of the memoranda. In the meantime, this initial committee would have the opportunity to enrich itself with expert scientists, on this wretched debt monster, and end up overthrowing the unacceptable demands of creditors. However, this good intention did not attract the attention of the authorities, and it also ended badly.
* During the pandemic, the religious commitment of the Germans to austerity had necessarily been abandoned, and the practice known as “helicopter money” prevailed. It would therefore be a good time to stigmatise the abstractions that have been added to the content of the memorandums and to follow a more humane tactic on the issue of debt from now on. Such as: a substantial cutting of the debt, a reduction in austerity, an extension of its repayment time, and even a return to the national currency for a few years, in order to finance further reconstruction. But, unfortunately, there was indifference on the part of those responsible and the loss of this opportunity.
* In the ethnic depreciation of the Troika, whose members plundered Greece as a colony of primitive inhabitants, the authorities appeared mentally naive before the IMF envoys, and willing to satisfy all their humiliating, for the country, demands. The same behaviour is reflected in their reports on our economy, where there is constant assurance to the IMF that even the most absurd, even the longest-lasting, destructive demands of creditors have been executed literally. No sign of discomfort!
Yes to all the demands of the authorities, but permanently, behind the back of the people
Certainly, the basic assumption on the basis of what anti-Greek and destructive signed our own destruction, in this period after 2009, was that they did not come from their will, but were the result of threats and blackmail from outside. However, a reasonable number of questions are being raised, which have so far not been answered satisfactorily. And this is because the Greek people have never received clear and honest explanations about the unexplained, offensive, dangerous, irrational, subversive obligations that were assumed for them and without their consent.
On the contrary, the Greek people were systematically left out of everything. Moreover, one of the many and inexplicable, in principle, incidents is the fact that (except in isolated cases) the circle of cover-up protected not only the government of the day, which signed, acquiesced, retreated, and cooperated with interests other than our own and against our national interests, but also the opposition. And one reasonably wonders what so terrible can lie behind this impermissible, as well as generalized, as well as already entrenched method of collusion.
The threats
The most likely threats, somehow leaked or, at times, imagined, are:
*First, to throw us out of the euro. This threat was issued several times, after methodical scaremongering, mainly by the mainstream media, about the horrible suffering that supposedly awaited us if it was carried out. The enumeration, of course, of our possible torments was patently naive, even to the most ignorant, around the EU and its monetary and economic affairs. However, at the same time as the threats were made, methods were put in place to discourage any serious discussion around it, and a dismissive attitude towards anyone who dared to express doubts about the scale of the disaster that awaited us outside the euro. Thus, and that is why there was never any serious discussion of this alternative. The unanswered questions are as numerous as:
-How did those in charge show such a degree of levity as to believe that the EU, whose foundations had been creaking ever since, would ever dare to voluntarily kick Greece out of the Eurozone?
-Even if they understood that all this was misguided and intimidating, why did our own officials not rush to inform the people and at the same time ask for help to follow up? The problem, like the ways of dealing with it, was not their private affair, but on the contrary, the future of the country and its survival depended on it.
-The question arises as to why they did not officially publicize this threat (if it existed) to Europe and the world, thus exposing the lack of cohesion and mutual assistance within the EU and asking for support?
*Second, to clog the euro drip, if we do not bow to their destructive demands.
And in this, as in the previous threat, it remains obscure why the threatened (presumably always) officials preferred to take on this enormous responsibility alone, far from the people, to whom any solution was addressed. It should also be noted that it is hard to believe that our own officials would have the naivety to believe that the EU would let Greece, a member of the Euro zone, officially default within it.
*Third, I do not want in any way to go into the business of personal blackmail or even personal promises of quid pro quo, because I refuse to even think that there are Greeks, especially officials, who would sell out their country for personal gain.
Concluding remarks
Kathimerini conference could be the golden opportunity for important revelations and even more for the Greek people to demand CONCESSION, if only for the behavior without limits of subservience of the government officials present there. For their complete subordination to the interests of the West, even if they were thus impoverishing the country. Instead of this, however, the discussions at the conference generally turned to “other words to love”. The only noteworthy confession was that of Mr Tsakalotos, about ‘pressure from the Troika, on the judiciary, to exonerate Mr Georgiou’. Not that the background to this case was not sufficiently well known for those who wanted to know. However, thanks to this confession, and thanks to the existence of some judges whose souls say so, hopes are rekindled that, at last, the circumstances under which Greece was crucified will be officially made known. And then, if God helps and there is a government not flattened to the dictates of the West, but instead subservient to Greek interests, Greece will be resurrected, however very slowly.
Dreams? Why not? They exist, alongside the storms.
Apart from the nightmarish, long and unfinished case of Mr. Georgiou, for our country, the discussion of this conference could be closed with some additional remarks:
-In spite of the ruin in which Greece has fallen, under the days of those present at the conference, they seemed generally satisfied. And they certainly continued the established policy of the last 15 years, no one blaming others for the country’s destruction, as they are obviously all complicit. This principle has been followed faithfully, until today, as all the governments of this period, right-centre-left, signed memoranda or accepted, without reaction, their contents. Forgetting that before coming to power, they had made promises, thanks to which they were elected, that they would tear them up, burn them or improve them.
-Moreover, no one present at the conference seemed to have a problem with the behavior, decisions and initiatives of the EU and the IMF. Therefore, it thus follows that all the suffering is the fault of the Greek people! And, unfortunately, a significant part of it is convinced of this.
-Moreover, no reflection was expressed on the often blatant contradiction between the will of the Greek people and the government’s decisions, but in addition, the patriotic veto of Kostas Karamanlis on the Skopje issue for NATO was accused as undesirable, since (inaudible) the name given to Skopje was a great success! And even though Greece was sunk, before that, by the rallies!
-But how democratic have these governments of the last 15 years been, refusing to inform the people about what was happening on their backs, and moreover, where their will was expressed, they completely ignored it? But also, how rightly had they separated, in their service, the Western interests (in this case of the Western banks) from the Greek interests?
-It is clear that the invited officials at the Kathimerini conference tacitly refused to be held accountable, apparently in the belief that they owe nothing to the Greek people. History, however, will certainly not be tolerant and will instead censure actions and omissions.
*First published in greek in Slpress in two parts on 23.03.2024 and 25.03. 2024
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