Whoever the “unnamed Greek prime minister” was in any case, Junker’s little unhappy story raises critical issues for the Papandreou regime and every single senior Greek politician who interacted with the EU presidium in recent years, not to mention our implacable “friends,” France and Germany.
To begin with, it sounds entirely implausible that Papandreou won the 2009 elections and then discovered the desperate state of the Greek economy, as he has claimed so many times already. As a senior PASOK leader, always surrounded by a whirlwind of traveling and “high diplomacy,” Papandreou must have been well aware of where we stood and, apparently, had also had a “plan” whose general outline he had discussed with all of our “saviors” but forgot to tell us about it during campaign 2009 (his deputy finance minister made the booboo not so long ago and blurted out during a television interview that Papandreou was ‘convinced’ on the day after the 2009 election that the country must be brought under the IMF). And then we all woke up in “memorandum land” and the nightmare started to unfold.
Similar, unlimited responsibility for the scuttling of this country rests with every senior Greek politician of the last 10-15 years, who must have come across concrete evidence of what was at hand and how our “partners” in the EU approached the subject. Inaction in the face of such impending deluge cannot be but equated with high treason -- and the term is not lightly offered.
Last but not least, our “friends” in Berlin and Paris leave us aghast but not entirely surprised. To put it bluntly, they accepted headlong lending to Greece as an obvious indirect subsidy to these uncouth Mediterranean types so that they could continue lavishly spending on German and French exports. The deal appeared (almost) full-proof: the idiot Greeks couldn’t keep their hands off the cash while all the while driving themselves into the deepest black hole. When they go bankrupt, a rescue “package” can be devised so the idiot Greeks can continue to receive funds to pay German and French bankers back and, again, commit themselves to long-term buying from German and French exporters, while their economy and society are hacked to death by “rationalization.” Spend today, worry about it later.
The one minor side effect of this brilliant policy though caught both Berlin and Paris somewhat unawares: with other EU “partners” tottering on the verge, the Greek crisis has had a multiplying effect, triggering a permanent threat to the European Monetary System and, more inherently, to the stability of the whole EU edifice.
Papandreou isn’t of course blushing over this vast wickedness just revealed in all its glory. He is obviously a man with a dark mission. And as long as Greek society does not rise to oppose his plans in a way that leaves no room for more “better days” ahead under his pantomime government, he will continue steering the boat on a predetermined course he, and perhaps a few of his confederates, only know to the permanent grief and grim impoverishment of all Greeks -- both those who made the fatal mistake of casting their ballot in his favor plus all those who didn’t.
So far, Papandreou (and foreign ‘friends’) 2, Greek society 0.