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Holy Crack! The Troika-guys broke my spine!
Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Economy, Editor
CRACK! The sound came from my back.! Precisely from my spine. Crack! Crack! Again. In fact I have no problems with my real bones. The cracks on my spine were caused by the unbelievable pressure of European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund -without or without Strauss-Kahn, makes no difference. The guys there are too bureau- and technocrats to be distracted from an old man looking grim and tired in a NY court room. Yes, I felt the Troika pressure on my bag after the Eurogroup meeting yesterday Monday in Brussels. It was the biggest in a series of Crack-sounds I ve been hearing for over a year now, in times we call the IMF Hell.
Unspoken and evil things came out when the meeting was over. Jean-Claude Juncker, chairman of the Eurogroup said it very clear “Greece will have to undertake broad and painful reforms before European leaders will consider extending maturities on its debt” – which translates in common English do your homework and then we talk about your debt soft restructuring – which on its side translates in commonEnglish “Debt re-profiling” – something like a facial treatment with botox, not a face-lift.
Furthermore J.-C. Juncker stressed that the huge reforms, privatization many public entities have to be made “Rapidly! Rapidly” – most probably he said something like “Vite, vite, mon petit cochon!” (quickly, quickly,my little piglet)….
And even furthermore the Eurogroup ladies and gentlemen urged the Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou to urgently seek a ‘political consent’ on the upcoming new measures that will be imposed by the new Memorandum of Understanding aiming to fill with billions of euros the budget and revenues holes. Greek media indicated that the Europeans have implied No consent, no 5th tranche of €110 billion loan. Oh, and that the consent should be preferably in written form. As it happened with Portugal.
A political consent is to be sought by the political parties and thus those potential to govern the country – which is the following one, the centre-right Nea Dimokratia. ND leader Antonis Samaras already implicated his denial – the guy is not stupid. How can he support the MoU if he is eyeing the leadership of the country in the next elections…
So, now what? Deadlock? Default? 10 million Greek immigrants? Revolution? Uprising? Hm….. To tell you the truth, I don’t know. However some thing are sure. Greek government has hesitated much too long to proceed to the Troika orders. Now there is no time left. Deadline.
And magic spells with privatizationsof the state enterprises with massive lay offs. With sale off of state properties. No, not the rubble building in Pireaus street. But first class ‘filets’. An island maybe, or two or even more. Whatever the Troika dictates. And Unemployment increase. Even more recession. Empty pockets and bleeding hearts. I don’t wonder why many Greeks are crying. It must be the cracks on their spine.
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