Owen Jones’s excellent article on the political situation in Greece was, sadly, too optimistic (Greece’s radical left could kill off austerity in the EU, 22 December). The prospect of the first “radical leftwing” government assuming power in the EU is, I fear, only a remote possibility, not because Syriza’s policies do not attract sufficient support in Greece but because austerity in Europe is now clearly judged to be much more important than democracy; the chances of an imminent general election taking place in Greece are remote. Only if Greek MPs fail to elect the government candidate as president will an election be called, and as the Greek prime minister equates this failure with “political turmoil”, everything possible is being done to ensure the candidate becomes the new head of state (Greek election uncertainty fuels concern over eurozone stability, 18 December).Bribes of €2m-€3m are being offered to ensure votes are cast “correctly”; seven leaders of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party are being allowed to participate in the election, even though they have been imprisoned for using their fascist group “as a front to run a criminal organisation”; and, as Jones reported, veiled threats are being made, to Greek politicians and people, by the president of the European commission, Jean-Claude Juncker. The fact that the likely victor of the election is a party committed to ending austerity and to ruling Greece on behalf of its people, not its banks and financial interests, explains why, in Jones’s words, “a democratic challenge to economic madness” is being “strangled to death”. Continue reading...
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