As was expected (and actually predicted) the Tsipras government has raised the issue of restructuring Greek debt and it is facing a full frontal clash with the EU and with Berlin. This is the beginning of a clash that not only affects Greece but all the indebted countries of Europe, including Italy. It relates to the very future of the European Union.Let’s start with a statement: as Rogoff said, the experience of history shows us that,when a country’s debt exceeds 90% of GDP it becomes unrecoverable and the country inevitably tumbles towards Default. There are those that contest this affirmation, saying that there are historical cases that demonstrate the opposite.
Anyway, what’s happening to Greece today, will be happening to Italy tomorrow. “Today in Greece tomorrow in Italy”… that reminds me of something.
When Tsipras won, lots of people then jumped on the bandwagon: from Sel to the Lega, from Rifondazione Comunista to the PD minorities, from Fiom to “Brothers of Italy”. However what the M5S has been saying all along about debt and the Euro is objectively closer to Syriza’s position than the positions taken by Sel and Rifondazione Comunista.
Anyway, let’s see what each one is made of: Athens cannot be left in isolation - it needs strong support against the rigour of Berlin, against Draghi and against the EU. What’s needed is for the groups in the European Parliament that are against this suffocating monetary union, to agree on a parliamentary motion to organise a European conference for the restructuring of the debt and I wouldn’t be at all shocked if alongside GUE {European United Left/Nordic Green Left} (hoping that evenLinke has the courage) there’ll also be M5S and UKIP and even Lega and Front National. I can already hear the horrified shrieks of the ultra-antifascists: not that that we have to get into bed with them, it’s just that today there’s an urgent matter that’s more important than anything else and that is the matter of debt, then we can go back and have a different position on everything after that. On the other hand, it would be interesting to see how the “socialist” parliamentarians of Greece, Spain, Portugal, France and the Italian PD, would vote. And perhaps even the Greens, always ready to support ethical battles ...
Adding them to the votes of the “Eurosceptics” and GUE, that would make a majority. Otherwise they would have to explain to their voters why they’re opposed to the restructuring of the debt for their own country as well: and perhaps they’d be willing to pay a small price. Perhaps it could also be possible to consider having a referendum to be held in all the countries of Europe at the same time.
And it would also be appropriate to have a conference involving all those political entities in Europe that are fighting for the restructuring of debt, perhaps organised by a collection of entities like Syriza, M5S, Podemos and we could invite everyone to come along - everyone apart from the Nazis of Golden Dawn and of Jobbik, that would sully the initiative unnecessarily.
And it’s also necessary to call the people out into the streets to support Greece, what do Sel, M5S, Fiom, Cgil, and the PD minorities think? And even the Lega? Each in his own way and with his own appointments, but action is needed and the time to act is now.
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