Regime Change in Greece

By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer  The decision by the Greek government to put the proposals of the European creditors to referendum is honorable.

Date: 04 July 2015 - 22:04

News ID: ۱۵۷۶۳

The European Union’s austerity program failed to achieve its own proposed goals: To make Greece’s sovereign debt more manageable and to reactivate its ailing economy.

This is while a new report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) vindicates the Greek government’s position almost entirely. Greece's debt is not viable, it says. "The approach of ‘austerity first, debt relief maybe’ was a disaster. Another program of cuts without debt restructuring would be so counter-productive that the IMF refuses to be part of it.”

According to the IMF, Greece should have a 20-year grace period before making any debt repayments and that final payments should not take place until 2055. The powers-that-be in Brussels are not buying any of it. Little wonder the "sovereign people” are going to the polls with a gun against their heads.

The Greek people are facing the major challenge of once again overcoming fear, the psychological basis of neoliberal governance, and of finding the integrity to vote NO, as a possible YES will entail a major setback for popular struggles.

The real agenda of the powers-that-be is simply to isolate, demoralize and punish the Greek people, thereby ending any prospect of resistance to neoliberal domination on the European continent. EU institutions are now openly admitting that their ultimate aim is regime change in Athens. A coup in anything by name, using banks instead of tanks and a corrupt media as the occupiers' broadcaster.

But there will be consequences. If Europe chooses to create a failed state on the continent, with a Middle East and North Africa ablaze and a Russia and China looking to expand their influence, the fallout will be unpredictable. It will damage the European Project. Punishing a member state for having done precisely as instructed will make every other state feel unsafe, making them question whether they are next.

The real fear in Brussels and Berlin is not that people in countries such as Spain and Portugal who have taken the brunt of eurozone austerity will oppose relief for ravaged Greece – but that they’ll want an end to austerity and their own debts written off as well. That’s why Germany and the European Central Bank want Greece’s surrender.

The eyes of the world are trained on Greece as it teeters on the brink of disaster. Greece feels betrayed, as the rest of Europe stands back and watches, greatly affected with panic and the fear of unknown.