Vile Propaganda
The Times carried an interesting article on the Greek elections the other day which helped to explain the nature of the coalition between Syriza and ANEL (Independent Greeks).
I saw the new prime minister, Alexis Tsiparis, on TV as he laid flowers at the Kaisariani memorial in Athens and if you ask me the symbolism was both ugly and misplaced, but staged deliberately to play to the prejudices of supporters who portray Angela Merkel on their banners dressed in a Nazi uniform.
Yet the German chancellor is one of the most outstanding elected politicians of her generation, a force for good in the eyes of reasonable people, who was born in 1954 none years after the Second World war ended.
Greek radicals take power in deal with anti-migrant party
Alexis Tsipras secured power with the backing of a right-wing fringe party
By Alkis Konstantinidis - Reuters
Anthee Carassava Athens
Greece’s new left-wing firebrand prime minister secured power yesterday with the backing of a right-wing fringe party led by an antisemite — a coalition deal that analysts said would leave the debt-laden country unstable and unpredictable.
Alexis Tsipras was sworn in during a five-minute inauguration stripped of triumphal pomp. “I don’t want to drag out this procedure,” said Mr Tsipras, who at 40 became the country’s youngest prime minister. “We have to get to work. An uphill battle awaits us.”
Breaking with tradition and taking a political oath, rather than being sworn in with his hand on a Bible, the tie-less atheist demonstrated from the start that his anti-austerity government would be taking Greece into uncharted waters: his first act was to place flowers at the Kaisariani memorial in Athens, where dozens of Greeks were murdered by German occupation troops in 1944. The decision raised eyebrows, given the battle that looms with Angela Merkel over his demands that the terms of Greece’s €240 billion bailout be eased.
After falling two seats short of an overall majority in the 300-seat parliament, the Syriza leader astonished some supporters by announcing that he would be going into coalition with the nationalist Independent Greeks, whose leader blames Jews for much of the nation’s financial woes. Independent Greeks’ 13 MPs, together with Syriza’s 149, give him a governing majority.
Mr Tsipras’s decision to overlook the left-of-centre but economically emollient To Potami party in favour of the vehemently anti-austerity Independent Greeks left no one in Brussels in any doubt about his determination to tear up the bailout deal.
However, it means that Mr Tsipras, who believes that all children born to immigrants should get Greek citizenship, will share power with a group of political and social conservatives who want to cut immigration and the Orthodox Church to play a larger role in politics.
Independent Greeks is led by Panos Kammenos, a pugnacious and populist former shipping minister who broke ranks with the conservative New Democracy party two years ago. While campaigning he lashed out at international lenders, urging the nation to “vote out the scumbags who have brought Greeks to their knees”. Europe, he said, was being governed by “German neo-Nazis”.
Last year, after masked gunmen attacked the Israeli embassy in Athens, Mr Kammenos accused Jews in Greece of contributing to the country’s fiscal woes by avoiding taxes. He is tipped to take charge of the Ministry of Defence.
Analysts questioned last night whether the oddball alliance could last, and warned that the deal would upset some of the elements that make up the coalition of groups of which Syriza is comprised. “Tsipras will have to seek a compromise inside his party, which is difficult,” Manos Papazoglou, a professor of political science at Peloponnese University, said. “This is a strange and unnatural alliance.”
Manolis Alexakis, a political scientist at the University of Crete, said: “The two movements have nothing else in common [except the bailout]. This is not an auspicious start.”
Like 70 per cent of the nation, Independent Greeks wants to keep the country in the euro.
Syriza insiders told The Times that the powersharing deal was struck on the understanding that Mr Tsipras would have a free hand in charting economic policy and negotiating a new debt deal with lenders. Independent Greeks, in return, would get a seat or two in the new cabinet.
However, To Potami officials made their dissatisfaction known. “It’s very difficult for us to co-operate with the Independent Greeks, because some of their policies flirt with the far right,” a senior official said. “We also didn’t like Tsipras’s fiery start.”
Mr Tsipras raised a clenched right fist when telling cheering supporters on Sunday night that the Troika of lenders who had bailed out Greece — the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — “are now history”.
The election result gives him a mandate to challenge the austerity programme imposed in 2010 in return for a €240 billion credit line keeping the country’s stricken economy afloat.
Greece’s cash reserve will run dry in July, when massive loan repayments come due. Without additional financing, it may default on its debts, pushing the country out of the euro.
“It’s not to the benefit of either side to heighten this stand-off and see Greece default,” said Megan Greene, a London-based economist. “Both sides will need to cave in on something.”
In recent weeks the anti-German message has been getting out of hand - with an Athens radio station being fined 25,000 Euros for calling Angela Merkel - the German Chancellor - a 'dirty Berlin slut'.
Cartoons have appeared portraying Germans as concentration camp guards - with the Greeks as holocaust victims.
The one above shows Angela Merkel in full Nazi regalia - which suggests that some people have completely taken leave of their senses.
The point is that no one is actually forcing the Greek people to swallow their nasty austerity medicine - if they don't like it, they can always drop out of the Euro.
Which would have big consequences - but would also be a darned sight more honest than this vile, anti-German propaganda campaign.
After falling two seats short of an overall majority in the 300-seat parliament, the Syriza leader astonished some supporters by announcing that he would be going into coalition with the nationalist Independent Greeks, whose leader blames Jews for much of the nation’s financial woes. Independent Greeks’ 13 MPs, together with Syriza’s 149, give him a governing majority.
Mr Tsipras’s decision to overlook the left-of-centre but economically emollient To Potami party in favour of the vehemently anti-austerity Independent Greeks left no one in Brussels in any doubt about his determination to tear up the bailout deal.
However, it means that Mr Tsipras, who believes that all children born to immigrants should get Greek citizenship, will share power with a group of political and social conservatives who want to cut immigration and the Orthodox Church to play a larger role in politics.
Independent Greeks is led by Panos Kammenos, a pugnacious and populist former shipping minister who broke ranks with the conservative New Democracy party two years ago. While campaigning he lashed out at international lenders, urging the nation to “vote out the scumbags who have brought Greeks to their knees”. Europe, he said, was being governed by “German neo-Nazis”.
Last year, after masked gunmen attacked the Israeli embassy in Athens, Mr Kammenos accused Jews in Greece of contributing to the country’s fiscal woes by avoiding taxes. He is tipped to take charge of the Ministry of Defence.
Analysts questioned last night whether the oddball alliance could last, and warned that the deal would upset some of the elements that make up the coalition of groups of which Syriza is comprised. “Tsipras will have to seek a compromise inside his party, which is difficult,” Manos Papazoglou, a professor of political science at Peloponnese University, said. “This is a strange and unnatural alliance.”
Manolis Alexakis, a political scientist at the University of Crete, said: “The two movements have nothing else in common [except the bailout]. This is not an auspicious start.”
Like 70 per cent of the nation, Independent Greeks wants to keep the country in the euro.
Syriza insiders told The Times that the powersharing deal was struck on the understanding that Mr Tsipras would have a free hand in charting economic policy and negotiating a new debt deal with lenders. Independent Greeks, in return, would get a seat or two in the new cabinet.
However, To Potami officials made their dissatisfaction known. “It’s very difficult for us to co-operate with the Independent Greeks, because some of their policies flirt with the far right,” a senior official said. “We also didn’t like Tsipras’s fiery start.”
Mr Tsipras raised a clenched right fist when telling cheering supporters on Sunday night that the Troika of lenders who had bailed out Greece — the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — “are now history”.
The election result gives him a mandate to challenge the austerity programme imposed in 2010 in return for a €240 billion credit line keeping the country’s stricken economy afloat.
Greece’s cash reserve will run dry in July, when massive loan repayments come due. Without additional financing, it may default on its debts, pushing the country out of the euro.
“It’s not to the benefit of either side to heighten this stand-off and see Greece default,” said Megan Greene, a London-based economist. “Both sides will need to cave in on something.”
Vile Propaganda (27 February 2012)
The problems facing Greece are enormous and largely of their own making - but this doesn't stop some of its citizens from blaming its economic woes on others - notably the Germans.
In recent weeks the anti-German message has been getting out of hand - with an Athens radio station being fined 25,000 Euros for calling Angela Merkel - the German Chancellor - a 'dirty Berlin slut'.
Cartoons have appeared portraying Germans as concentration camp guards - with the Greeks as holocaust victims.
The one above shows Angela Merkel in full Nazi regalia - which suggests that some people have completely taken leave of their senses.
The point is that no one is actually forcing the Greek people to swallow their nasty austerity medicine - if they don't like it, they can always drop out of the Euro.
Which would have big consequences - but would also be a darned sight more honest than this vile, anti-German propaganda campaign.
