Has the European Union been a bad idea?

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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.

21

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 to remain in the euro or to leave the euro. In any case this is a question that is not going to be decided by ordinary Greek citizens, at least for the moment. The conflict that is so evident in the Parliament around that subject, among others, is something we can monitor. The conflict in the mass media, in the talk shows, in the journalistic squabbles is something it is perhaps preferable for us not to watch, because as it seems its main purpose is to frighten us rather than inform us.

The question of the media is of central importance. I think that even citizens who voted YES must have been at least uneasy about the stance taken by the Greek and international media in the week that preceded the referendum. This problem is also at the heart of the Appeal by German Greeks and Greek Germans and the Greek answer that was formulated by representatives of the three associations of Aegina: the Association of Active Citizens, the Ioannis Capodistrias Cultural Association and the Women’s Association.

Professor Juergen Link, who initiated the Appeal by German Greeks and Greek Germans, proposes a seminar on the problem of the media, which in Germany cultivate hatred of Greeks and in Greece hatred of Germans. In reality what is needed is more than a seminar. What is needed is a form of pan-European politics that is not influenced by the media, which places a negative stigma on every influence from this direction. This is perhaps something for discussion among those who would like to be actively involved in such a project of delinkage from the media. We have already made a beginning with the programme we made in 2013 on the VMedia web channel Europe Starts from Here.

In any case let us agree that for the purposes of today’s discussion it is not relevant which Greek politician has played the worst role. The subject is not Greek internal politics, or even Greece in general. The subject is Europe, the European Union, because the European Union as we have known it – this was written a day or two ago by the Irish journalist Fintan O’Toole – ended last weekend.

European integration was based on three assumptions, three conditions. The first condition was that the process was consensual: each member state lost more and more of its sovereignty because it was choosing of its own free will to do so. The second term was that this step-by-step procedure was irreversible. This was the terminology of the Treaty of Maastricht on the subject of monetary union. It was not part of the scenario that you could change your mind and go back. Neither could others change their mind about you and send you back. The third assumption was implicit and had to do with the role of Germany. As we know, Germany was defeated in WorldWar II, and badly defeated. In return for the opportunity to make a new beginning after this defeat it was considered self-evident that Germany would not try yet again to become the hegemon of Europe.

Today Germany is not only trying to become the hegemon of Europe. It is succeeding in becoming the hegemon of Europe. I suppose that most of us here will have seen yesterday’s address to Parliament by Yanis Varoufakis. Not everyone admires the role that Varoufakis has played, but I think the conclusions of that address will be generally accepted.

Varoufakis calls the so-called agreement that has just been voted by Parliament a “new Treaty of Versailles”. But most SYRIZA parliamentarians supported it, for the sake of the unity of SYRIZA. “We in SYRIZA are and will be united, at the time that Europe strikes a blow against itself through procedures that the historian of the future will describe as the moment of dismantling of the dream of Adenauer, Constantine Caramanlis, Andreas Papandreou, Willy Brandt, Helmut Schmidt and Helmut Kohl.”

There was uproar in the Parliament after the speech by Varoufakis. Outside the Parliament, also, there was pandemonium. Here we are not shouting, we are not denouncing, and the reason for that is not concern for the unity of SYRIZA. I hope that our concern here is for the citizens of Greece to remain united at this conjuncture. And the hope is also, perhaps, that just as in 1828 when the modern Greek state was founded in Aegina, this island will function today also as a haven of stability and security within the chaos of Greece.

The question we put forward is “Has the European Union been a bad idea?” We raise it not as a declaration but as a question. Certainly the man we are going to hear now does not believe that the priority is to leave the euro, or the European Union. But is he right or wrong?

kokkalas

The video can be found online here.

Note that in 2009 Ioannis Coccalas saw not Germany but France as the key obstacle to the whole European integration process. Those who are now embracing the French campaign for a Germanexit should bear that in mind. (More on that here).

16th July 2015

 

Giannis Varoufakis replies on his reasons for going to Aegina at the moment of the most crucial parliamentary vote

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Varoufakis and family on the ferry to Aegina

Varoufakis and family on the ferry to Aegina

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 of Yanis Varoufakis attacked Frixos Drakontidis when the journalist tried to extract a statement from the former minister.

Protothema indeed says that the SYRIZA parliamentarian in effect ordered the police to remove the journalist by force, with the result that one of the three policemen in Varoufakis’ personal guard attacked Mr. Drakontidis, grabbed him by the neck and shoved him away on the hatchway, with the result that he fell over and was injured on the head.

According to reports, the Minister for Protection of the Citizen Giannis Panousis was informed of the attack on the protothema journalist and undertook to investigate the incident in depth. The journalist Frixos Drakontidis has already reported the incident to the island’s harbour authority and proposes to institute legal action against the former minister, his wife and the three security guards.

A few minutes after publication of the relevant story Yanis Varoufakis responded with a tweet.

(Yanis Varoufakis: Fortunately there are people who respect what it means that I wish to spend the weekend with my little daughter before she returns to Australia where she lives.)

Source: Lifo http://www.lifo.gr/now/politics/70685?ref=yfp#comment

From the absurd to the tragic?

Anyone living through, or even just following, developments in Greece knows all too well the meaning of expressions such as “critical moments”, “climate of tension”, “dramatic overturn”, “pressing on the limits”. From Monday something new, ostentatious and blatant will be added to all of these: the absurd.

The word may seem strange, or an overstatement. But how else could one characterize the total reversal of the meaning of such an amazing event as the referendum of 5th July, only hours after its occurrence, and indeed by its own exponents? How could one explain that Messrs Meimarakis and Theodorakis, that is to say the heads of the camp of the (crushingly) defeated, should have become the official spokespersons for the line being followed by the Greek side, and should be promenading from pillar to post laying down its terms? How is it possible for a devastating “no” to the memorandum policies of austerity to be “interpreted” as a green light for a new memorandum? And to put it in commonsense terms: if they were disposed to sign something even worse and even more binding than Juncker’s proposals, what was the point of the referendum, or rather of the struggle to achieve the “no” and, naturally, of its stunning consummation?

The sense of the absurd is not just a product of this unexpected reversal in the dynamics of the situation. It stems above all from the fact that all of this is unfolding before our eyes “as if nothing has happened”, as if the referendum were something like a collective hallucination, which suddenly ends, leaving us to continue uninterrupted what we were doing before. But because we have not all become lotus-eaters, let us be permitted to give a brief résumé of what has taken place in the course of the last days’ unbelievably rapid developments.

So, last Sunday the Greek people staggered Europe and the world, responding en masse to the government’s call and, in conditions unprecedented by the post-war standards of any European country, overwhelmingly voted “no” to the extortionate and humiliating proposals of the lenders. Both the extent of the “no” and its qualitative composition, with its enormous lead in the working class and popular strata and in the younger generation, testify to the depth of the transformations that have been occurring, or rather that have crystallized in such a short time, in Greek society. Friday’s mass mobilizations, the climate “from below” that has prevailed over the last days, not to mention the enthusiastic wave of international solidarity, testify to the huge potential that is opened by the popular intervention in favour of a political choice for conflict.

But from the morrow of that “day that shook the world”, before the victory cries in the country’s public squares had even fully died away, the theatre of the absurd began. Under the aegis of the actively pro-YES President of the Republic, the government summoned the heads of the defeated parties to elaborate a framework for negotiation positing the euro as unpassable outer limit of the Greek position and declaring specifically that it has no mandate for a rift. Public opinion, still affected by the joyful haze of Sunday, watches as the representative of the 62% accepts subordination to the thinking of the 38% in the immediate aftermath of a resounding victory for democracy and popular sovereignty.

On Tuesday the government, with no “proposal” to make, transfers its operations to Brussels for the extraordinary Eurogroup meeting and, as is absolutely logical, finds itself confronted with a new, abrupt and even harsher ultimatum. The next day Euclid Tsakalotos inaugurates his duties as Finance Minister (in the interests of brevity we pass over the factor of the “Varoufakis resignation”, simply noting that it was a demand of the lenders) by sending to the ESM (European Stability Mechanism), the organization that manages the greater part of the Greek debt, a letter requesting a new loan of 50 billion euros, which will be accompanied of course by a third memorandum[1]. It is envisaged, indeed, that the Parliament will begin on Monday to vote the relevant enabling legislation.

The Tsakalotos letter continues with references, inter alia, to Greece undertaking “to honor its financial obligations to all of its creditors in a full and timely manner.” It is obvious that despite the assurances that were heard after the proclamation of the referendum for “restarting discussions from scratch” the “negotiations” (which are negotiations only in name) are continuing exactly from where they left off, with the Greeks lowering the bar for their opponents to a point that is politically unsustainable in Greece, as we correctly judged at that time.

The same day, pending the new Greek “proposals”, which were to be “reliable, detailed”, etc., i.e. made to measure for a memorandum, the Prime Minister addressed the European Parliament and declared that “if my aim had been to take Greece out of the euro, I would not immediately after the closing of the polls have gone to make the statements I made and interpret the result of the referendum not as a mandate for a break with Europe but as a mandate for reinforcing our negotiating efforts so as to arrive at a better agreement”[2]. This amounts to more or less open acknowledgement that the result of the referendum was being “interpreted” with a specific end in mind, that of negotiation at all costs and avoidance of a rift.

In the same speech the Prime Minister outlined quite succinctly the philosophy that for many weeks has been informing the whole stance of the Greek side and to which the “parenthesis” of the referendum has not brought the slightest change: “In these proposals we have evidently undertaken a powerful commitment to achieve the fiscal goals that are required on the basis of the rules, because we recognize, and respect, the fact that the Eurozone has rules. But we reserve the right of choice, the right of being able, as a sovereign government, to choose where we shall place, and add to, the burden of taxation, so as to be in a position to attain the required fiscal objectives.” So the framework is given: it is that of the restrictive measures which secure fiscal surpluses and aim at the repayment of debt. It is incontestably the framework of the memoranda. The “disagreement” is over the “distribution of the burden”. It involves a (supposedly) “socially more just” variant of austerity, which will be presented as “redistribution” at the same time as it perpetuates the recession (every reference to commitment to non-recessionary measures has been effaced) and impoverishment of the majority.

In the meantime, and while these soothing reassurances are being put forward that demolish what has remained of SYRIZA’s programmatic commitments, there is a ramping up of the state of political siege that the country is enduring, with the European Central Bank holding closed the spigot of liquidity and trimming even further the value of bank bonds, leading ineluctably to collapse. And yet! Despite the gravity of the situation and despite the fact that through the imposition of capital controls part of the road has already been covered, nobody, apart from Costas Lapavitsas and some members of the Left Platform, is speaking of the self-evident and basic measures of self-protection that are necessitated by circumstances of this kind, starting from public control and nationalization of the banking system. The explanation for this is of course very simple: anything of this kind would place Greece with one foot outside the euro, which is precisely the absolute fetish on which the government is impaled, just as an – in no way radical – economist such as Paul Krugman ascertains that “the greater part of the cost has already been paid” and that it is time for Greece “to reap the benefits”[3].

A very simple conclusion emerges from all this: with the moves it has made in the last week, the government has achieved nothing other than total restoration of the previous entrapment, from a much more unfavorable position, under the pressure of even more relentless economic asphyxiation. As for the political advantage, the powerful injection of political capital it derived from the referendum, it hastened to expunge it in record time, following at all points the line of those who had opposed it and who have every reason to feel vindicated, despite being trounced at the ballot box.

But the referendum happened. It wasn’t a binge from which everyone has now recovered and it wasn’t a hallucination. On the contrary: the hallucination is the attempt to downgrade it to a transitory interlude for “letting off steam”, prior to resumption of the downhill course towards a third Memorandum.

Let us put this forward with all due clarity: any attempt to cancel the popular will for overturn of austerity and the Memoranda amounts to hubris in the ancient Greek sense of the term. Whoever dares to lead the country, and the Left, to surrender and to dishonor should be ready to face the corresponding Nemesis. If such is to be the culmination of the dementia of these days we are living through, let us at least be fully cognizant that for this tragedy there is not going to be any deus ex machina nor any merciful Athena to assuage the wrath of the Furies.

 

[1]The text of the letter here http://www.thepressproject.gr/article/79045/Auto-einai-to-Elliniko-aitima-ston-ESM-metafrasmeni

[2]Τhe full text of the Prime Minister’s speech here http://left.gr/news/omilia-tsipra-stin-olomeleia-toy-eyrokoinovoylioy-tin-Tetarti

[3]Paul Krugman’s article is here http://www.euro2day.gr/specials/opinions/article/1346935/kroygkman-o-megalyteros-logariasmos-toy-grexit-pl.html

Ο Γιάνης Βαρουφάκης απαντά για το ταξίδι στην Αίγινα την ώρα της πιο κρίσιμης ψηφοφορίας

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Βροχή αρνητικών σχολίων συγκέντρωσε νωρίτερα ο Γιάνης Βαρουφάκης όταν μέσω Twitter γνωστοποίησε ότι δεν θα είναι απόψε στη Βουλή για να ψηφίσει.

Ο κ. Βαρουφάκης επικαλέστηκε οικογενειακούς λόγους για την απουσία του και λίγο αργότερα κοινοποίησε μέσω Twitter την επιστολή με τη ψήφο του για την αποψινή ψηφοφορία στην οποία θα απουσιάζει.

Ωστόσο λίγο μετά κυκλοφόρησαν ο φωτογραφίες που τον έδειχνα μαζί με η σύζυγό του να βρίσκεται στο καράβι για την Αίγινα όπου έχει εξοχικό. Αυτό όπως ήταν αναμενόμενο προκάλεσε ακόμη περισσότερα σχόλια.

Πρέπει να σημειωθεί ότι σύμφωνα με το άρθρο 70Α του Κανονισμού της Βουλής, οι βουλευτές μπορούν να ψηφίζουν με επιστολική ψήφο μόνο όταν βρίσκονται σε αποστολή της Κυβέρνησης ή της Βουλής στο εξωτερικό.

Λίγη ώρα νωρίτερα το protothema.gr κατήγγειλε πως δημοσιογράφος τους που προσπάθησε μαζί με φωτογράφο να προσεγγίσει τον κο Βαρουφάκη όταν αποβιβάστηκε, δέχτηκε επίθεση από άντρα της ασφάλειας του πρώην ΥΠΟΙΚ. Η ιστοσελίδα αναφέρει μάλιστα πως ένας από τους σωματοφύλακες του Γιάνη Βαρουφάκη επιτέθηκε στον Φρίξο Δρακοντίδη όταν ο δημοσιογράφος προσπάθησε να ζητήσει μια δήλωση από τον τέως υπουργό.

Το protothema αναφέρει μάλιστα πως ο βουλευτής του ΣΥΡΙΖΑ ουσιαστικά έδωσε εντολή στους αστυνομικούς να τον απομακρύνουν βίαια με αποτέλεσμα ένας από τους τρεις αστυνομικούς της προσωπικής του φρουράς να του επιτεθεί, να τον αρπάξει από το λαιμό και να τον σπρώξει με βία στη μπουκαπόρτα όπου έπεσε και τραυματίστηκε στο κεφάλι.

Για το περιστατικό της επίθεσης στον δημοσιογράφο του ΘΕΜΑτος ενημερώθηκε σύμφωνα με το ρεπορτάζ ο υπουργός Προστασίας του Πολίτη Γιάννης Πανούσης ο οποίος δεσμεύθηκε ότι θα ερευνήσει σε βάθος την υπόθεση ενώ ο δημοσιογράφος Φρίξος Δρακοντίδης έχει ήδη μεταβεί στο λιμεναρχείο του νησιού όπου καταθέτει μήνυση εναντίον του πρώην υπουργού, της συζύγου του και των τριών ανδρών ασφαλείας.

Λίγα λεπτά μετά το δημοσίευμα ο Γιάνης Βαρουφάκης απάντησε με ένα ακόμη tweet.

 

Πηγή: www.lifo.gr

Συζήτηση με τον Δήμαρχο Αίγινας για την Ευρώπη των Πολιτών

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Πριν από τις εκλογές της 25ης Ιανουαρίου 2015 που έφεραν στην εξουσία τη σημερινή μας κυβέρνηση, ένας γερμανός καθηγητής πανεπιστημίου ο κύριος Juergen Link, μαζί με ομάδα υποστηρικτών, δημοσίευσε μια “Έκκληση από Γερμανοέλληνες και Ελληνογερμανούς” (Για μια αμερόληπτη και δίκαιη ανταπόκριση στις δημοκρατικές αποφάσεις του ελληνικού λαού).
Πρόκειται ουσιαστικά για διαμαρτυρία κατά της εχθρικής και δόλιας στάσης των ΜΜΕ της Γερμανίας ενάντια στην Ελλάδα και στους Έλληνες. Μέχρι σήμερα έχει εξασφαλίσει την υποστήριξη περίπου 1.500 πολιτών, κυρίως στις γερμανόφωνες χώρες.
Τον Μάιο εδώ στην Αίγινα σε σύσκεψη εκπροσώπων από τρεις συλλόγους: το Σύλλογο Ενεργών Πολιτών, το Μορφωτικό Σύλλογο «Ιωάννη Καποδίστρια» και το Σύλλογο Γυναικών, αποφασίστηκε η διαμόρφωση «ελληνικής απάντησης» στην «‘Εκκληση από Γερμανοέλληνες και Ελληνογερμανούς.»

Την Παρασκευή 26 Ιουνίου πραγματοποιήθηκε συζήτηση με τον Δήμαρχο κ. Μούρτζη για το περιεχόμενο και το στόχο αυτής της «ελληνικής απάντησης». Το κείμενο της «απάντησης» αναρτήθηκε στην ιστοσελίδα «Καποδίστριας-Σπινέλι- Ευρώπη» ως συμβολή στη συνεχιζόμενη καμπάνια υπέρ της «Ευρώπης των Πολιτών».

 


Υπογράψετε την ελληνική ανταπόκριση στη γερμανική έκκληση εδώ: http://main.cse-initiative.eu/?page_id=361

ΠΗΓΗ: Aegina Light

THE MAYOR OF AEGINA ON THE GREEK ANSWER TO THE APPEAL OF GREEK GERMANS AND GERMAN GREEKS

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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 text.

Mayor: So to get to the point “a conference to highlight the lack of impartiality of the mainstream German mass media, holding a conference on our island of Aegina, which was the first capital of the modern Greek state under Ioannis Capodistrias, the great pan-European diplomat and statesman”. Yes.

W.H.: The point is also that the problem is not only the mass media of Germany. There is a more general problem. But we want to make some kind of move towards solving at least some of these problems.

P.M. : And Greeks should also respond to this letter and support it as much as they can. With the help of the polity, if that is possible.

W.H.: Mr. Mayor, the international social movements that support Greece are coming together in these days in Athens. The exact programme that they will follow depends on the progress of the so-called negotiations that are being held at this moment. We believe that the stance of citizens should not be dependent on moves at the governmental level. Even in the event that Greece is obliged to leave the euro, the goal should remain the same: Citizens’ Europe. It should remain unchanged. What is your view on that?

Mayor: I would like to thank you congratulate you for the initiative you have taken with collecting citizens’ signatures.

W.H.: Are you willing to add your signature?

Mayor: Very willingly. I have no objection. You can add my name. In any case a submission by the mayor is something more than a signature. And it can go to the council for approval by the council. My submission is that yes I agree with moves of this kind, which contribute greatly to what we believe, to what we call democracy, to what we call values, to what we describe as human, because all that together is itself democracy.

We are a united community. We are a community of Europe. And we have expected and still expect, whether we are in the euro or not, an understanding of the citizens and not condemnation to isolation of a historical community, such as Greece is, with a great culture, with a great history, with great natural beauty, with fine people, begging for something that is implicit in democracy.

So I congratulate you on this initiative, and I seek a response from the community, not the politicians. It is up to the community to respond: the community of nations in which we are all participants. That is my declaration and my statement.

W.H.: So we are in agreement.

Mayor: I would like to say, because I forgot to mention the professor who took the initiative, Mr. Link, I truly congratulate him, and I would like to make his acquaintance. He is an innovator. I agree completely with this initiative he has taken and his references to Greece which we all love because we are Greeks. I consider him a friend and I would us to get to know each other, at the level of the municipality and at the personal level, because I believe that contributions of this kind should be mentioned and recorded for history.

P.M.: Here at least in Aegina you are the first to activate people, but there is an Australian who lives here permanently and struggles for Greek interests and that is very important.

Mayor: Very.

P.M.: Rather than some local Greek patriot, the Australian comes, and moves things forward.

W.H.: Do you know what Australia’s national day is? What the date is? 26th January.

Mayor: The same day. So we’ll have to celebrate it together. One year in Australia and one year in Aegina.

(laughter)