By
Con
George-Kotzabasis April 27, 2012
The May 6
Elections of Greece Crucial for the Future of the Country
History
has shown that at critical moments, in countries of advanced and high culture,
men of stupendous ability, imagination, foresight, and fortitude, sprang, like
phoenixes from the ashes, to salvage their countries from mortal threats.
Themistocles at the battle of Salamis that saved Greece from the barbarian
Persian invasion, is one example, the other is Charles Martel, who at the
battle of Poitiers stopped the barbarian Muslim invasion from conquering
Europe. In our modern contemporaneous times, Greece, on the verge of being
devoured and crashed by the ‘hungry fangs’ of default and economic poverty, is
just as promptly to be saved by a modern-day Periclean statesman, Antonis
Samaras.
In
the early 1980’s, with the advent of Andreas Papandreou’s socialist government
in power, which proved to be the destructive force that brought
Greece to its present catastrophe, that immediately started implementing the
serial economic crime of a policy of deficits, the country entered the vicious
circle of government spending without economic development. By the early 90’s
it was glaringly clear that the debt of the country was reaching astronomical
heights that would lead it to the precipice of default and bankruptcy. In 1994,
Constantinos Mitsotakis, the former prime minister of Greece, in a prophetic
speech in Parliament, predicted that the economically crass and thoughtless
policies of Pasok would send Greece as a mendicant to the International
Monetary Fund to spare it from pauperism. Andreas Papandreou himself was
shocked when at a sober moment glanced at the unfathomable debt that the
country was in, as a result of his dirigisme
economic policies. It was in his presence when his minister of finance Kostas
Simitis remarked, in an accusatory and pungent phrase, that this was “the
revenge of the economy.”
The
false prosperity that had engulfed Greece turned a sizable part of its
population to indulge in the charms and seductions of dolce vita at the expense of government largesse. A whole
generation of Greeks had been spoiled and became kaloperasakides (the easy life of prodigally good-timers) under the
perpetual munificence of the State. In such a social situation the New
Democracy party, though imbued with the precepts of The Austrian School of
economics versus Keynesianism, and realising, as its leader Constantinos
Mitsotakis did, that the country was approaching in a rapid pace the edge of
insolvency, had its hands politically manacled and could not implement
decisively and with celerity, and with the necessary degree required, policies
of economic restraint that would have prevented the transformation of Greece
into a mendicant status, since there did not exist even a small constituency on
the political landscape of Greece that would contemplate, least of all accept,
policies of austerity. The Greeks had been ‘pathologically’ conditioned to the
‘benefits’ accruing from big government, introduced by Andreas Papandreou, and
any attempt to small government by any party in power or any opposition
propagating such an idea, could neither
hold or win government. Who would give up the ‘free tans’ in sunny Greece that so profusely and generously the
State was providing? And who would give up the cushy and loafing jobs in the
public sector that the party boys and girls of Pasok and New Democracy were
enjoying and relishing? This is the point from which the economic tragedy of
Greece had started and would continue to its tragic end.
Thirty
years of frivolous public spending brought debt-to-GDP ratio of 120%. Since
October 2009 when the son of Andreas Papandreou, George, became prime minister
and implemented measures of severe austerity as directed from Brussels in the
first memorandum, debt reached 168% of GDP. With the continued recession of the
country for the fifth year, Greece lost 16%--18% of its GDP since 2009.
From
early 2010 the Opposition leader, Antonis Samaras, few months after his
election as leader of the New Democracy party, was warning the Papandreou
government of the danger that the austerity measures without economic recovery would
lead the country into recession. But his was a lone voice in the wilderness. And
for his bold and insightful decision to oppose and vote against the first
memorandum replete with the leaden heaviness of austerity that would sink the
Greek economy as it did, he was vehemently reprimanded both from within and
outside the country. The Economist magazine
severely criticised him for his stand against the memorandum but only to lament
its critique two years later and concede that Samaras was right. Likewise,
Chancellor Merkel and many European ministers with whom Samaras had quarrelled
and pointed out to them that austerity measures without rekindling the economy
would not resolve Greece’s problem but would make it more abstruse and harder
to crack. It took two years for the top brains of Europe to realize that the
austerity pills that they were forcing into Greece’s mouth to remedy its ills
would have the effect of poisoning its body. (In two years of the severe
austerity of the Memorandum, as we indicated above, Greece increased its debt
to GDP by a great amount and lost a substantial part of its Gross Domestic
Product as enterprises closed and unemployment ravaged the country.) And in
turn, like The Economist, admitting
that Samaras had won the argument, as all Europeans now are calling for
economic recovery and development, supplemented by austerity measures that are
necessary, as the way to restore a country’s economic strength.
The
impending election that has been called by the interim government of Lucas
Papademos for May 6 is of momentous significance for the future course of the
country. Greeks will be called to be partisans of the hard climb to the peak of
Mt Olympus from where the sun of hope will rise once again over Greece or be
partisans to a free fall in a long twilight of despair. The first is the
thunderous call of the New Democracy Party under the Gulliverian and imaginative
political leadership of Antonis Samaras, and the second is the deathlike mute
call of a congeries of small parties from the left and the right led by Lilliputian
politicians. These politically 'pigmyfied' parties, among which is the Communist
Party, have no policies of rescuing Greece from its woes, except policies that
would lead to the exiting from the European Union and return to the drachma
that would lead in turn to the absolute poverty of the country, deliberately drop
the curtain on all hope on Greece as their sole aim is to sordidly profit
politically by their investment in hopelessness.
The
socialist party, Pasok, the main opponent of New Democracy, although on the
side of hope, even under the new leadership of Evangelos Venizelos, is totally
discredited, as it has been the party that led Greece to its present
catastrophe by a bout of unbelievable and unprecedented economic and political
mistakes, that Venizelos himself was involved in and responsible, during the
last two years that was in government. Moreover, the latest decision of the
High Court of Greece to apprehend and charge a former luminary of Pasok and
right-hand man of Andreas Papandreou, the founding father of the Panhellenic
Socialist Movement, Akes Tsohatzopoulos, his wife and daughter, and some of his relatives,
with bribery and corruption and with being the receiver and beneficiary of
millions of dollars as paid commissions, during his tenure as minister of
defence, from German and Russian companies to which he had authorized major assignments
and projects of his department, has indelibly marked Pasok as venally corrupt; particularly when its present leader
Venizelos, at the initial investigations of Tsohatzopoulos, with the stentorian
voice of the lawyer, that he is, was defending and exculpating from any knave
dealings, and with the usual catch-all alibi of the typical politician, that the “accusation against Tsohatzopoulos
was politically motivated.” Hence, inconceivable political incompetence and
culpability, and unfathomable corruption on the part of Pasok, will be two
major themes that will dominate the elections and which will ineluctably lead
to new lows in the polls for the socialists.
In this critical economic and political
setting that the country is in and the looming threat of the breaking of social
cohesion, Samaras is asking the Greek people to give New Democracy the “auto-dynamism,”
by a majority of votes in the elections, so he can have his hands untied to
govern the country with decisiveness and clear uncompromised policies that
would put Greece on the trajectory of economic recovery and development. He
argues cogently, that in the present political situation of Greece when
consensus about the necessary economic policies among parties of how to
regenerate the economy of the country is absent, a coalition government--which
is the designated position of Pasok and according to the polls at this moment the desire of a majority
of the electorate--will be politically impracticable, and more importantly,
would not drag out the country from its peril but would further engulf it into profounder
depths; as one could not govern effectively a country in a crisis and gradually
bring it out of it by being compelled to
make compromises to one’s political partners, but only by a well-defined plan
and decisive and prompt action to implement it without compromises, by a leader
who has a strong mandate from the electorate.
Samaras
believes, and reasonably hopes with the confidence of a statesman, that during
the electoral period and closer to election date, there will be a dramatic
shift of voters toward polarized positions, once the crucial issues of the
country are spelled out clearly and without lies to the people by New Democracy
and by foreshadowing the practical economic policies backed by real numbers
that would put Greece on the track of economic recovery, there is a great
chance that the majority of Greeks will give New Democracy a strong mandate to
govern on its own for the benefit of all Greeks and for the salvation of the
country.
Samaras
contended long ago, that only through a clear strong authorization given to him
by a majority of the people he would be able to radically change Greece. For
real economic development entails not only good policies and incentives but a
transformation in the views and customs of people toward such development. He
puts great emphasis on the value of human capital and entrepreneurship as the
prerequisites for the economic recovery of the country. That is why he has
promised to re-legitimize private enterprise and effort that for many years now
has been delegitimized in the country by communist-led unions, to whom profit
has been, as always, the devil-incarnate of the capitalist free market.
The
present high unemployment of more than 20% Samaras contends, will not be
reduced by mere lower labour costs which already have been decreased by 15% in
the private sector while the tax burden on the latter has increased by 50% and
energy costs by 450%. Even if Greeks worked for free no one would hire them
with such high taxes and energy costs. Samaras in his Zappeio III speech few
days ago declared that he would cut corporate tax to a flat rate of 15%, sharply
cut pay-roll tax, lower personal income-tax to 32% maximum, and reduce taxes substantially
on fuel and tourism. This would harden rampant tax evasion and would unleash the
creativity of the private sector and hence commence the gradual reduction in
unemployment. He also announced, that he would increase the lowest pensions to
700 euros per month--that were reduced drastically by the second Memorandum
under the austerity measures--and would increase the endowment of families with
many children which would not only correct an injustice inflicted upon these
two weak sections of society but would also have favourable economic
consequence as they would increase
consumer demand, which is so important in rekindling the economy, as both
recipients of this government assistance spend their money in consumer goods. He
would do these two things without increasing public expenditure and hence
worsening the deficit, but by cutting government wastage that is so massive and
profligate in the State’s spending. Further, he will provide incentives to
private enterprise in areas where Greece has almost unchallengeable comparative
advantage, i.e., in the merchant marine sector, ship building, and tourism; and
in the production and merchandise of olive oil and other agricultural goods by
the local producers themselves, not by foreign ones as is the case presently, whose
development in all the above sectors will vitally affect the resurgence of the
economy. He also proposes to provide incentives to entrepreneurs to exploit the
rich mineral resources of the country and to give priority to find and tap the
vast natural gas deposits under the Aegean Sea, by declaring the Greek AOZ
(Exclusive Economic Zone) that could transform the export dynamic of Greece. He
intends further, to reverse the present dryness of liquidity in the country by
proffering amnesty from any legal penalties to those who withdrew their cash
holdings from Greek banks during the height of the crisis and deposited them overseas
once they bring them back to the country; and also by immediately paying back
the 6.5 billion euros that the government owes to domestic enterprises; these
two measures would increase the liquidity of the banks and hence their ability
to provide loans to the private sector, especially to small businesses, that
are the backbone of the country’s economy. Moreover, the re-capitalization of
the banks, Samaras argues, will enable them to borrow funds at low interest
rates from the European Central Bank, that were set up by it last December,
which would be used to put Greece on the track of recovery and economic
development.
It
is by this method of supply-side economics, as that wunderkind Alders Borg the
Swedish Finance Minister illustrated for his own country that Greece’s economy
will rise again. The necessary austerity measures stipulated in the new
Memorandum that Greece has to implement must be accompanied by the rejuvenated
“animal spirits” of private enterprise. Samaras, consistently has been saying
for the last two years that “we need a recovery to jump-start the economy,” and
in conditions of recession austerity measures cannot stimulate the economy but
on the contrary sink it deeper into stagnation.
The
vision and plan of Samaras is to plant radical changes on the whole landscape
of Greece. In his Zappeio speech he adumbrates constitutional changes that
would separate the three branches of government the executive, the legislative,
and the judiciary and thus prevent a member of parliament from being a minister,
which has been in the past a malignant link of political corruption and has
bestowed ‘asylum’ to members of parliament for their malfeasances. He pledges
to bring changes to educational institutions that would reclaim the proud
heritage of Greece that tragically has been eroded by the cultural relativists
of a left coterie of pseudo-intellectuals and led to the disconnection of many
young Greeks from their great cultural origins. He also promises to take
drastic measures against illegal migrants, whom he calls “unarmed invaders” of
Greece that under the soft immigration policies of Pasok they have occupied the
main centres of cities, and remove them to provincial hostels until their
eventual expulsion. Another important commitment
of Samaras is to transform the bon vivant
ethos of many Greeks, which up till now its tab has been picked up by the
government, into a creatively productive one. On the new green tree planted by
New Democracy, the singing cicadas will be replaced by fecund working bees. As
Samaras is fully aware that sustainable economic development cannot be
accomplished without transformative changes in the thinking and the mores of
the people, especially of the younger generation.
Samaras
is “framed in the prodigality of nature,” to quote Shakespeare. He is endowed
charismatically both with a high intellect and remarkable moral strength along
with the will and determination—all the stuff out of which statesmen are
made--to change all things in Greece. But whether this lightning bolt of creative
destruction will strike Greece or not depends on the strong mandate
that he needs from the people. If Greeks do not fail, at this critical
juncture, from fulfilling their historical duty to render to New Democracy a
majority of seats in Parliament, then Antonis Samaras, in turn, will consummate
the cultural political and economic Renaissance of Greece.
Hic Rhodus
hic Salta
