By: Despina Lalaki

Despina Lalaki — Tue, 15 May 2012 02:42:00 +0000

Samatas accurately summarizes the results of the May 6th elections and raises an important point: the vote that the Greek people cast for SYRIZA mark only the beginning in a long struggle to come for European reform.
If Greece has been merely an experiment in the most recent and most extreme neoliberal practices in Europe, as it has often been argued since its economy constitutes only a very small part of the European pie, then the elections of May 6th signal the failure of this experiment.
There are two issues in place here, though closely interrelated: the immediate future of Greece and the European future. While the Greeks did not vote for exit from Europe or its currency the ‘Troikans’ are already threatening that the rejection of the austerity measures automatically will lead to the exit (nobody calls it expulsion) of Greece from the Union.
It is a plausible scenario, even though the ‘mechanism’ for the expulsion or voluntary exit of a country from Europe has not been established yet. The results may be catastrophic, as the previous discredited government often warned us invoking images and memories from the 1940s and the German occupation. On the other side, as many economists who have looked at similar cases argue the country might have a new opportunity for growth since she will be able to devalue the currency, restructure the economy based on a scheme that the state will have a greater oversight of the financial sector and eventually rejoin the markets.
Economists describe both scenarios as arduous processes with many unexpected turns and twists on the road.
On the other side, what is also at stake here is of course the future of Europe itself, as we know it today at least.
It is very possible that the exit of Greece or what by now is called ‘Grexit’ will scare the markets (apparently the markets can have very strong ‘feelings’ about such events) about the future of Italy, Spain, etc. the PIGS in short and trigger a domino effect which will bring Europe on its knees if not the world markets.
So yes, I completely agree with Samatas that the ‘Greek situation’ and the most recent vote of the Greek people breaths a fresh air of hope for two reasons at least. First because it suggests that neoliberal experiments of the type they have tried to impose on people are not only cruel, inhumane but also ineffective. They can be met with intense resistance and most dangerously for those who mastermind and implement them they can even trigger boomerang effects and eventually challenge the system itself.
Second these elections in Greece along with the French elections suggest that there is a serious possibility for Europe to be re-imagined. It is unclear whether this is going to be a European Union of greater political and economic integration, a capitalist Europe with a more humane face or something entirely new. We should bear in mind that nationalism and xenophobia is at an all time high. What is clear, however, is that a new horizon has opened, primarily because people are coming out of their isolation and back into political life, and despite the fears and the many uncertainties ahead of us there is also hope for something new.

Comments on: Reflections on the Elections in Greece

By: Despina Lalaki