generalspeaking

Diving Headlong Into The Abyss

"The process will be swift, it will be speedy, it will begin in the next few hours with the aim of concluding until the end of the week at the latest."
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras

"You know, there was a promise for today. Then, they're promising for tomorrow. For the Greek government it's every time 'manana'."
Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite

"We'll see if on Sunday this issue will be solved once and for all."
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi

"It's not just the problem of Greece -- it's the future of the European Union [that's at stake]."
French President Francois Hollande

"I'm extremely sombre about this summit. I'm also sombre about the question of whether Greece really wants to come up with proposals, with a solution."
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has been given one last chance to reach a deal   Photograph: Laurent Dubrule/EPA

Greece is behaving like the spoiled child of the European Union, throwing a tantrum about the unfairness of having to be fiscally responsible. It's great fun not paying taxes sufficient to enable the state to provide all the services that Greeks feel they're entitled to, so if they can't afford the Greek lifestyle on Greek taxes, their entitlement extends to using other countries' citizens' taxes for Greeks to live in the style to which they have accustomed themselves.

Greek "dignity" appears to be wrapped in a flag of disgruntlement, annoyance at their EU fellow citizens who balk at the imperative to continue supporting the very people who express their contempt by insisting austerity is a place they aren't interested in being, while mightily resenting other countries' insistence that it is a necessary place to live in while balancing income against outcome.

In the face of their imminent financial collapse, Greeks were celebrating and congratulating one another at having achieved that brink of collapse. In the interests of cutting off one's nose to spite one's face, the Greeks have become their own Trojan Horse. The ballot result that gave Greeks a reason for triumph represented scorn for the soft hearts that allowed them to live for years in a style they weren't entitled to, through tens of billions of euros extended by EU well-wishers.

Germany, which stands to lose 89 billion euros in Greece's out-of-control debt is facing a political crisis over the situation, even while other EU countries in the south of Europe expect that Germany will once again surrender to Greek demands. The debt relief that has made other European taxpayers all the poorer hasn't made Greeks any more appreciative of their situation. Let alone the EU's situation, with Greece's failure representing an unwelcome precedent.

Spain, Italy and Portugal gritted their teeth and made the required sacrifices following EU rules; under the current situation they must be wondering why they bothered. Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is like an adolescent in arrested juvenile development; delighted at his popularity at home, taken with the new 'respect' he imagines among his political peers, combatively overseeing the ruination of an immense European institutional dream.

He is out of his depth. Greece is drowning, waiting for Europe to save it from its own careless neglect, sleep-walking into a tsunami of future problems. "We are no longer talking about weeks but very few days", warned German Chancellor Angela Merkel, cautioning Tsipras about the abyss he was drawing Greece inexorably closer to.

Labels: Controversy, Crisis Management, Economy, European Union, Greece

posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, July 08, 2015