New Democracy party leader Antonis Samaras has formed a coalition government with the Socialist PASOK party and the Democrat Left party. Although the new conservative led government has been billed as pro-bailout, Democrat Left leader Fotis Kouvelis has vowed to make amendments to the crippling austerity measures that he feels have “bloodied Greek society.” Kouvelis stated that his involvement in the coalition was exclusively under the understanding that new policies would fit his party’s remit.
In his opening statement as PM Samaras called upon the help of God almighty to bring clarity to his spell as leader of the historic country: “With the help of God we will do whatever passes from our hands to get out of this crisis.” Although a little farfetched, the scope of his notion is fairly accurate; it will take an unworldly miracle to bring Greece back to prosperity whilst they remain held hostage by the single currency.
It remains uncertain whether the Holy Spirit will bless the birthplace of democracy with his divine intervention, but the starving and injured Greeks will be able to take some solace from the fact that the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, has pledged his support to the embattled nation. Obama described the election result as a “positive prospect” and believes that the choice to almost elect a pro-bailout party will offer the “prospect for the Greek people to reform and prosper.”
Obama’s optimism is touching but in terms of absurdity, it challenges Samaras’ belief that God is the answer to all of Greece’s problems. What’s next? Will the US Prez explain how the election results will now give Greece the potency in attack, and resilience in defence that the Hellenic nation’s national side needs to overcome the Germans in the Quarterfinal of Euro 2012? … No hopefully not, but all the same the future remains apoplectically bleak for the people of Greece.
The extent to which membership of the Eurozone has fractured the country is evident in the strong polling performance of the ultra right-wing Neo Nazi party, ‘Golden Dawn’. Despite the fact that their leader has been caught on camera repeatedly slapping two women in the face and throwing a glass of water over one of them, 6.9% of the Greek vote has once again gone to the contemptible party.
Desperate times call for desperate measures and the gap in competitiveness which has left Greece in the doldrums of Europe has inspired a detestable affiliation between certain groups of the population and an organization whose primary objective is argued to be slaughtering foreigners until there isn’t any left.
Greece is suffering from a credit crunch that is a direct result of interest rates aligned with the German economy making it too easy for businesses and individuals to borrow money that they will never be able to pay back; it is suffering from an export industry that cannot compete with the core European countries because of relative wage growth; and it is suffering from a grossly overvalued currency.
To say that Greece is suffering from its membership in the Eurozone is an understatement akin to describing the sea as wet or the night as dark.
