Dear Yanis Varoufakis, For five months, you have personified the hopes of many European citizens. You have brought a wind of intellectual rigor and honesty in the circle of gray men of the Eurogroup. You tried tenaciously to respect the mandate of Greek voters: breaking up with the austerity policies while remaining within the euro area. But late June, the zombies of the Eurogroup and the Council, reinforced by the isolation of Greece and weak solidarity movements in Europe, sent you an ultimatum: submit or leave the euro. The victory of the “no” in the July 5th referendum had reinforced your legitimacy to refuse the diktat of creditors. On July 13th you revealed |1| the proposal you made to Alexis Tsipras on the night of the referendum, “a triptych of actions” to avoid submission: “issue IOUs” (acknowledgments of debt in euros, that is to say a complementary currency based on tax revenues), “apply a haircut on Greek bonds” held by the ECB since 2012 in order to reduce the debt, and “take control of the Bank of Greece from the hands of the ECB.” But Alexis Tsipras refused this plan and accepted your resignation. On July 20th, at the Greek Parliament, … Continue reading
Category Archives: English
As a first (and hopefully not last) step towards an objective discussion of today’s situation of the European Union, outside of the logic of parties, parliamentary and “media” conflict, on 16th July there was, with the compliments of Mr. Paschalis and Mrs. Salomi Melissaris, a screening of an extract from the paper presented in 2009 by Mr. Ioannis Coccalas, entitled “From Altiero Spinelli’s Draft to the Treaty of Lisbon”. As Deputy Director of the European Parliament’s office in Athens, Mr Coccalas was at that time one of the speakers at the “Ioannis Capodistrias, Altiero Spinelli, Europe” conference held on 21st June 2009 in Aegina. An introduction to the 16th July screening was presented by Wayne Hall, member of the steering committee of the Aegina Association of Active Citizens. INTRODUCTION I would like us to be in agreement that in today’s discussion it will not be relevant whether we voted YES or NO in the referendum, whether it is mainly Simitis and Papandreou, Samaras and Venizelos, or Tsipras and Varoufakis who are most to blame for the present situation in Greece. I would like us to agree also that it is not going to be relevant today whether we prefer Greece … Continue reading
A journalist complains that at the harbour of Aegina he was attacked by a member of the security for the former Finance Minister There has been a hail of negative comment in response to Yanis Varoufakis’ message through Twitter that he will not be in the Parliament for the vote on Greece’s proposals to the European Union Mr. Varoufakis cited family reasons in justification of his absence and shortly afterwards published through Twitter the letter with his vote in this evening’s parliamentary session, which he will not be attending. Nevertheless, after this photographs circulated which showed him together with his wife on the ferry for Aegina, where he has a house. This, as it was to be expected, provoked even further comment. It should be noted that according to Article 70a of the Parliamentary Regulations, parliamentarians can vote by mail only if they are on business abroad for the government or the parliament. A short time ago protothema.gr complained that one of their journalists who tried, together with a photographer, to approach Mr. Varoufakis as he was disembarking, was attacked by a member of the security of the former Minister of Finance. The website notes that one of the bodyguards … Continue reading
Mayor D. Mourtzis: What’s his name? Wayne Hall: Juergen Link. He is a professor of literature. Paschalis Melissaris: He took the initiative along with other university people to compose a text against the misrepresentation of Greeks in relation to what they have already…. W.H.: Essentially it is a protest against the stance of the mass media in Germany and how they reproduce enemy images Mayor: So in the person of Mr. Link we have someone who is a friend and an ally who is interested in our history… W.H.: He is a Philhellene and he started this movement before the elections… P.M.: It isn’t starting now… W.H.: Before the present government came in…. But there is a whole sequence of events after the appeal. An open letter to Mrs. Merkel and other messages to his supporters. For there are around 1,500-1,600 Germans and others supporting the initiative. But it is something that deserves an answer, a response, from Greece. Mayor: Should we invite them to a meeting? W.H.: As you can see…. This letter was written with support from three associations: the Aegina Association of Active Citizens, the Ioannis Capodistrias Cultural Association, the Aegina Women’s Association. Mr. Melissaris corrected the … Continue reading
Try to bring back to your memory the “Dying Galatian”, the ancient Roman marble copy of a lost Hellenistic statue that is now in the Capitoline Museum. At the beginning of the 19th century Europe bears a certain resemblance to this figure, the wounded soldier. The open wound was France. The revolution of 1789 had enthralled the minds of all Europeans able to read Rousseau or dream of a life with greater justice. France had executed its monarch and established the radical republic of the Jacobin revolutionaries. A general had defeated its enemies and exported its principles to the rest of Europe. But such was his ambition that he had ended up just as absolutist and arrogant as the old monarchs. Napoleon Bonaparte was a force that to the peoples at times appeared to be their liberator and at times their oppressor. This takes us to discussion of the first serious assignment to be undertaken by Capodistrias, in 1811-1812. As head of counter-espionage, first for Admiral Chichagov and later for Barclay de Tolly he was put in charge of psychological warfare before and after every encounter between the French and Russian armies on the battlefield. The most important factor for … Continue reading