Antonis Samaras has some great allies in his election campaign; allies that he would have to spend tons of money to buy if he was going to these elections alone. With all European leaders on his side, he looks like the perfect candidate for the 25th of January: Widely accepted, affable, conciliatory, friendly, even lovable. Reading reports from European newspapers and news agencies in the past few days, an outsider would think that Greece is ready to say goodbye to the euro and go bankrupt as the crazy SYRIZA communists will take over and change everything. Unless, of course, sanity prevails at the last minute and Greeks run to the polls to vote for Saint Antonis on his white horse, ready to save Greece from the red attack. It is as if European leaders and finance ministers are afraid of the simplest and most fundamental of democratic processes: Voting. Because ever since the election date has been set, our European partners are doing everything they can to influence our vote. German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and EU Finance Commissioner Pierre Moscovici have openly stated that if Greeks elect SYRIZA, it would be the equivalent of committing economic suicide. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble called on Greece to move forward with the required reforms and stick to the agreements of the bailout program saying that, “any newly elected government must respect the commitments of its predecessors.” All that friendly advice to stick to the existing government of “known faces,” like EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has said in the past, sounds like a threat. Juncker had said that he prefers to sit down and talk with people he knows, people who know and respect the European processes. And that brings to mind the picture of smiling, cooperative Antonis Samaras. It is natural for European officials to want to cooperate with people they know and agree with. It is natural for everyone. But if the people of Greece decide that they don’t want to be represented by the current government any more and a high European official indirectly tells them that if they “don’t vote wisely,” they will suffer the consequences, that crosses the line between a warning and a threat. It’s like saying that if you vote against our choice, we will cut the credit line. But isn’t a democratic election one of the ideals of the European democratic process? Grexit is the major threat used by our European partners. In the past few days, the word appears in European mass media more often than weather reports. The word “drachma” has become the new boogeyman, more scary than the recent extreme cold and snowfalls in Europe. It is true that the Greek economy will suffer if the country leaves the euro zone, but where does the certainty that SYRIZA is dying to bring the drachma back stem from? Let us Greeks alone make the choice of believing if SYRIZA will do that or not. The threats of a new crisis are also constantly on the lips of many European officials. As if the old crisis is over and we didn’t notice because we were reveling in its aftermath. Unemployment figures are still the same as during the “old” crisis, the GDP is lower than before and the optimism of Greek people is at the very bottom. In the upcoming election, SYRIZA is selling precious hope and Europe is selling the fear of economic destruction.
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