By Richard Cottrell:
The
markets believe that the inconclusive election in Greece is simply a
way station to the next crisis. The proposed coalition has already been
sold down the river by the troika, who are saying that rejuvenated
retread premier Antonis Samaras and his cohorts can expect no
substantial deviations from the austerity program.
So there will be no early relief from record unemployment, bankrupt
hospitals, and universities whose budgets were looted to pay off
foreign bankers. Of course, this also means that there will be no change
in the appearance of hunger and distress in wide sections of the
population and the massive exit of funds to safe havens abroad.
But this is only part of a much wider picture. A clear majority of Greeks, 46% to 42% (albeit, even in a tampered election,
which is very telling), voted against the crushing austerity regime.
Yet they have ended up with a government run by the same bunch of
kleptocrats who were responsible for the crisis in the first place.
Greece is a one party state and make no mistake about it. So-called
‘New’ Democracy was a Western manipulated and controlled front set up by
the CIA and NATO in 1974, following the fall of the military junta that
seized power in 1967.
Pasok, the Pan-Hellenic Socialist Party, was the main rival on the
Left. Neither of these labels mean anything at all. They are simply
fancy wrapping for the rival Papandreou and Karamanlis clans who have
squabbled for control of the country’s scant resources for the last four
decades.
Even Der Spiegel, which is usually a Time sound-alike echo chamber
for the globalists, shrugged its editorial shoulders in writing, “There
is little sense of a new beginning in Athens. After all, New Democracy
and Pasok took turns in running the country for 37 years. Many voters
blame them for getting the country into its current debt mess.”
So it doesn’t make an ouzo’s worth of difference which of the
revolving door parties is in charge, the outcome is always the same. The
fact that both are in the driving seat at the same time bodes serious
trouble, especially as it is now dawning on the Greek people that the
election result was a set-up by the powers behind the troika.
Greeks get to select their preferred candidates by marking the ballot
sheets with an X for those they want to see elected. It was quite
obvious that the finish would be a close one, and a close election is an
excellent nursery for destroying a quite small number of ballot papers –
or misallocating preferences – and thereby altering the final result.
This is a well known and inherent fault of all PR (proportional
representation) systems. The sleight of hand happens chiefly when the
tallies are moved from ballot papers to electronic registers.
Alexis Tsipris, leader of the relatively radical left party Syriza,
was cheated of the premiership by manipulation of the electoral system.
The hidden hands expected the Tsipris faction to win the election with
approximately 30% of the vote, New Democracy tailing with 24-25%.
In order to avoid this unthinkable outcome, the preferences were
manipulated to flip the result, so that New Democracy came first with
29.66%, Syriza tailing slightly behind on 26.89%.
That’s a wafer-thin giveaway difference of 2.87%. As I have already explained in a previous article, winner takes all, because of the fifty-seat bonus system.
It must be noted that slender margins disguise vote rigging all too easily.
The percentage swing for the two poll-toppers is another sign of
meddling. New Democracy put on 10.81%, Syriza 10.11% from the earlier
round in May. The difference is 0.7%, which compared to votes cast is
completely out of line.
These margins are too close for comfort and clearly point to the
puffing up of the New Democracy vote after the polls closed. I am
expanding my analysis here from the post that I made on this aspect
earlier, now that we have the final (alleged) tallies. The figures
scream interference.
Tsipris is very far from a naïve fool. He knows perfectly well that
the result was twisted in favor of the old gangs. He also knows that
the Greek people will not accept the imposition of the same old liars
and cheats yet again. He is also clever enough to judge that the ranks
of naivety are to be found foremost among the troika, who fixed the
result to dress up Greek approval, even if grudging, for staying in the
euro and by extension, the EU itself. In doing so, they rigged a trap
for themselves.
The troika cannot bend at the knee by significantly moderating the
terms of the austerity package, except to some modest degree, because
they have just this week bailed out Spanish and Italian banks to the
tune of €600 billion.
This comes after weeks of bland assurances from the leaders of both
countries that their banks were “perfectly sound.” If Greeks get a
softener, why not Italy and even more problematically, Spain?
So what will Tsipris do next? The answer is: nothing. He does not have to do anything spectacular. He has clean
hands. He told the truth and the Greek people now understand that even
better than before. He has 71 seats in the Vouli (the parliament) and
he only has to play the calm and measured statesman role, as the hapless
coalition staggers from one inevitable crisis to the next.
Many commentators, including myself, have entertained the prospect of a usurpation, a putsch,
if the situation deteriorates so badly that another that election might
have to be called. Tsipris would quite likely win that by a landslide.
He wouldn’t even need the famous the golden snitch, the bonus 50 seats.
It’s bizarre, but in gerrymandering the result, Greece’s oppressors
have ushered the country’s first red in tooth and claw, truly
independent opposition into parliament for the first time since WWII.
A putsch cannot be ruled out, since NATO – thus the US – controls the
Greek military. But it would be very messy, invite massive civil
resistance and virtually shut Greece down to investors. Tsipris and his
merry band would likely be thrown into jail, as the usurping Colonels
did with their political opponents in 1967, thus invoking mass human
rights and democracy protests.
Greece isn’t after all any old titchy, marginal European state.
There’s a lot of history there. It is the much-vaunted cradle of
civilization and democracy, even if those claims are much exaggerated
for the small surviving rump of the “glory that once was Greece.”
If democracy is again elbowed aside – so shortly after the recent
collapse of the Papademos techno-government – it would be seen as a standing
rebuke to the ugly face of globalism. It would ignite popular protests
right across Europe, especially in other countries which are also
laboring under austerity rule – Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Austria
and Belgium knocking at the door.
The EU would be revealed for what it actually is: a colonial empire
in the making, trampling opposition in one of its outlying provinces,
like the Romans of yore.
Samaris may anyway see his illusory majority quickly melting away in
no time at all. Both Pasok and Democratic Left, the junior partner in
the 3-way coalition, are lowering the lifeboats even before the ship
sets sail. Counterfeit-socialist Pasok is anyway an endangered species
in electoral terms, scraping barely 12% in the recent poll. A wipe-out
beckons.
So both junior coalition partners are tendering neutrals for key
cabinet jobs, to avoid being tarred by the inevitable public backlash,
or at least so they think.
That’s very Greek.
All along alarm-spreaders have been saying that doom and disaster
will strike the entire EU project if Greece was allowed to default.
Now the truth has come home to roost. It is still default or bust,
but unless Greeks are permitted to run their own affairs, without
external interference, then the likelihood of serious unrest could
result in the EU starting to unravel.
The stubborn obsession with austerity must be abandoned. It is an
amply demonstrated fact arising from many previous experiments that you
cannot entertain austerity and growth – or even just plain stability –
at the same time.
Finally, a short comment on the Italian and Spanish bailout. Clearly there is much more to this than meets the eye.
Fuherena Merkel has been saying that the German government would not
entertain bond purchases at any price, so she’s just performed another
of her famous squealing U-turns. Let the truth speak its name. These are
Eurobonds whatever disguise is adopted, so monetary union has inched
forward yet again without effective scrutiny and approval.
The Iron Maiden of the Rhine held off as long as she could, before
confronting the plain fact that Greece is a suppurating pimple compared
to the enormous problems of Spain and – although to a lesser extent –
Italy.
I guess that she was eventually persuaded that Spain could probably
bring down the Union without some kind of life-belt. So now we have
Eurobonds by the back door.
This is yet another example of dishing out bad medicine by piling new
debt on old debt, instead of addressing the core problem. That as we
all know, is the struggle to keep the euro alive on emergency support
systems, which cannot continue indefinitely.
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