SOURCE
Appeal for a fair media coverage
of the democratic decisions taken in Greece.
Appeal by German Greeks and Greek Germans
1. Syriza is right when saying that the European house can not be considered as private property of the ‘markets’ and their central powers (Germany in the first place). Countries such as Greece do not live there only for rent with a contract until revocation and in danger of being kicked out by the police just in case they are not able to pay the rent. The European house will either be a condominium or it will not exist.
2. In the very moment Greece has announced free, equal and secret elections as fixed by the constitution, the mainstream of the German mediopolitical class start crying out like a herd (with some honourable exceptions), as if a dictatorship was going to be established there. As if the country was set under a language regime, each and every day there is this monotonous and everyday cry about the threat of a (democratic!) victory of an „Anti-European“ „Eurocritic“, „populist“, „anti-reform“, „radical-left“, „anti-business“ etc. party, that ‘will steal the fruits of of the Greek people’s hard sacrifice’, will ‘offend international donors’, and will ‘throw Europe back into the crisis“.
3. This delirium of language regime and one-eyedness threatens to poison the relationship between our peoples. It is a one-eyed vision to pretend that the Greek misery was 100 % ‘homemade’ and that “our markets“, the big western banks in the first place, had not had their share – as if they were ‘going to infect us’ – and as if it had not been ‘our markets’ and ‘our’ policy of taking up prewar Chancellor Brüning’s methods that have inflicted the entire Southern Europe with their big crisis, that has not at all been overcome. The crisis is our common crisis.
4. But aren’t there any homemade Greek factors that have enhanced the crisis? Indeed there are, but they are not found in the entire people at an equal measure, they are found among the Greek oligarchs cheating in tax frauds, who despite of all this have been and are still appreciated as partners of our “markets“, which have (besides our own banks) benefited from ‘our emergency funding’. And who have been bribed by Siemens, Rheinmetall etc on a large scale. Just at this time when for the very first time there is the chance to get to the root of the causes and make these Greek oligarchs responsible, “our markets“ are raving by means of their media, but not against the alleged “proeuropean“ political representatives of these oligarchs, but exactly against those politicians who want to hold them accountable. At the same time the most substantial information is being lost: Syriza is anti-oligarchic and its enemies of the former governments are pro-oligarchic. Telling the story with the globally well-known Greek myth: The majority of our media do not rave against Augeas and his stable stinking as far as to Germany but against Herakles who wants to clean it out…
5. Tell us, mediopolitical class: What is your actual stance towards democracy? You were against these elections because they would disturb ”the markets”. One of the typical pro-oligarchs, the chief of the socialdemocratic party PaSoK Venizelos, showed his unsurpassably naive comprehension of the term democracy when announcing triumphantly: “The markets have voted for Greece!” So the voters of this kind of democracy are the “markets”: Thus one should call it agoracracy (rule of the markets), not democracy.
6. The human voters on the other hand have been entirely impoverished by the policy of following the methods of prewar Chancellor Brüning. German kids learn at school that Hitler came into power in 1933 because the German people had been totally impoverished by the Brüning policy: 6 million unemployed, youngsters in the first place, are supposed to be the critical level even today. In Greece, however, this critical level, has by far been surpassed (in percentage). In addition there was a crushing of the mass purchasing power by lowering the still existing wages, tax increase and the cut of the social net partly to a level of zero (as in the case of medicine). Emile Durkheim already believed that a short term increase of the suicide rate above the annual average is the safest symptom of a seriously ill society. The Greece of the austerity mandate is such a case.
7. Brussels and Berlin (and as their voice the majority of the media) declare this undeniable catastrophe as temporary and as a necessary short term shock therapy, in order to make the country “competitive” and “normal” again. This is the real deception: If there will be “growth” again, then it will spring from an abysmal “ground” – and only for an upper third, while the two lower thirds are to satisfy themselves with a “new normality”, that is called “thirldworldification” in Greece. In other words: The “new normality” of Greece according to the wish of Brussels and Berlin is a low, downgraded class of normality without substantial elements of our German social nets – in the long run.
8. The majority of Greeks struggle against this permanent downgrading and not just a few of them regard Syriza as a means in this struggle. This is the main goal of the one-eyed polemic against Syriza: Syriza wants to support a European, not thirdworldlike normality. Their main claim is a great remission of debts. Only such a great debt remission can return possibilities in economic and social policies to the country – while interest and redemption payments of the huge mountain of state debt will consume the biggest part of the tax revenues into eternity. Only such a reduction in debt will eventually lead to the salvation of the simple people and not only of banks and oligarchs. Cancellation of debt and liability of all oligarchs and banks – these are the two main pillars for every improvement of the situation in Greece. We support these two claims also from Germany. We believe that democratic media and democratic politics are obliged to explain these two claims impartially, fairly and not in a one-eyed way. The EU needs to negotiate these two claims without precondition at government level, not with a democratically illegitimate technocracy such as the “troika”.
9. Germany and Greece are connected historically in a specific way. Not only because the entire classic German literature, art, and philosophy are based on the ancient Greek heritage. Especially New Greece has inspired German “philhellinists” since Hölderlin and the poet of the lyrics for Schubert Wilhelm Müller (so called “Greek-Müller”) to present days. Greek immigrants from the 1950es to the crisis driven recent wave have done their part in building up German prosperity. A large part of the enthusiastic German tourists in Greece can be considered as philhellinists, too. We can not retire into indifference when the “proeuropean” (in fact pro-oligarchic and bank-devout) forces privatize the beaches under the dictate of Brussels and Berlin and transform them into all-inclusive-miles as well as sell off entire islands for a short-term reduction of the debts, which will the more increase in the long run. Syriza wants to set an end to this madness and so proves to be really proeuropean. In addition especially we as German philhellinists can not forget what German occupying troops have done to this people (without having repaid not even the forced loan until today). Our leading politicians and mediamakers have probably forgotten, but we have not: The fight against Nazi-occupation of the Greek resistance with its terribly many victims has decisively contributed to the liberation of Europe and hence also of Germany, from Hitler and his Third Reich.
10. A large part of the German war debt was canceled by the London Debt Agreement in 1953. The international recognition of the 2+4 Agreement in the course of German reunification instead of the originally planned peace treaty spared Germany not only from a second Versailles but also from adequate compensation payments for the destruction of the continent. In comparison to that a large scale debt cancellation for Greece is – in the language of the “markets” – ”peanuts”.