Thursday, July 16, 2015

The problem of Greece is not only a tragedy. It is a lie...

An historic betrayal has consumed Greece. Having set aside the mandate of the Greek electorate, the Syriza government has willfully ignored last week's landslide "No" vote and secretly agreed a raft of repressive, impoverishing measures in return for a "bailout" that means sinister foreign control and a warning to the world.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has pushed through parliament a proposal to cut at least 13 billion euros from the public purse - 4 billion euros more than the "austerity" figure rejected overwhelmingly by the majority of the Greek population in a referendum on 5 July.

These reportedly include a 50 per cent increase in the cost of healthcare for pensioners, almost 40 per cent of whom live in poverty; deep cuts in public sector wages; the complete privatization of public facilities such as airports and ports; a rise in value added tax to 23 per cent, now applied to the Greek islands where people struggle to eke out a living. There is more to come.

"Anti-austerity party sweeps to stunning victory", declared a Guardian headline on January 25. "Radical leftists" the paper called Tsipras and his impressively-educated comrades. They wore open neck shirts, and the finance minister rode a motorbike and was described as a "rock star of economics". It was a façade. They were not radical in any sense of that cliched label, neither were they "anti austerity". Full story...

Related posts:
  1. IMF stuns Europe with call for massive Greek debt relief...
  2. Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras 'beaten like a dog and crucified' by EU...
  3. V for Varoufakis...
  4. Greece: the one biggest lie you are being told by the media...
  5. Greek referendum no vote signals huge challenge to eurozone leaders...
  6. Young Greeks flee abroad as crisis deepens...
  7. Greece becomes first developed nation to default on international obligations...

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