Angela Merkel’s visit to Athens on April 11 takes place just two days after the strike of public and private sectors employees in response to the reform multi-bill. The bill, which was passed earlier this month by the Parliament under the Troika’s mandate, evinces once again that the Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is in league with the German ‘architect of austerity’ in Europe. As such, Greece’s abrupt return to international debt markets is prelude to the Chancellor’s arrival. While Alexis Tsipras calls for a progressive exit from the crisis, Merkel and Samaras adhere to neoliberalism. The result: Greece has become the ‘Guinea-pig’ of the European political and finance elites, and as a result faces an unprecedented economic and social catastrophe today.
Pre-electoral exchanges
The conservative media have presented Chancellor’s Merkel visit to Athens as ratification of the Greek ‘success story’. In reality, her visit seems more like a pre-electoral ‘gift’ to her close ally, Antonis Samaras, who has been facing phenomena of right-wing extremism within his government. The firestorm surrounding, ‘Baltakos-gate’ only serves to strengthen Alexis Tsipras’ argument that to regain democracy we have to end austerity.
Economic failure - Social disintegration
Almost a year and a half ago, Angela Merkel visited a Fort Knox-like Athens in order to be re-assured that Samaras’ government would impose the neoliberal recommendations of the Troika. Against the obvious will of the thousands of protesters that rallied in the Greek capital, Angela Merkel and Antonis Samaras acknowledged the ‘sacrifices’ of the Greek people, although both declared their commitment to the Memoranda provisions.
Merkel’s second visit finds the Greek economy and society still very much at ‘the edge of the cliff’. While the political and economic elites in Greece and Europe invent ‘success stories,’ the reality is anything but.
The government-heralded primary budget surplus ignores the fact that Greece is facing one of the biggest, maybe the most severe, peace-time recessions in history. The adoption of the Memoranda has led to the continuous povertization and marginalization of Greek society, as well as tremendous social exclusion. For these reasons, SYRIZA has characterized the latest austerity-oriented reform multi-bill between the Greek government and the Troika, as collusion.
Neoliberalism divides Europe
The results in Greece sternly warn against austerity policies; however, neoliberalism is not only confined to Greece. The Social Democrats, Conservatives and Liberals have applied the neoliberal framework generally to the European crisis, a ‘one-size-fits-all’ answer for all the Member-States, especially for the countries of the European South. Neoliberalism has poisoned European unity, and has led to negative stereotypes and mutual suspiciousness between the North and the South.
The Left rejuvenates Europe
Angela Merkel is not the sole reason for the implementation of austerity policies in Europe. They are warmly supported by leading European political parties and key EU’s institution, as well. However, the German Chancellor is the emblematic figure of this austerity-era and symbolizes the economically insufficient and anti-social European policies.
The Left is the only political party seeking to protect European values, and the only Party that can offer a socially viable and economically sustainable program for Europe's future. The defeat of Angela Merkel’s vision in the upcoming European elections will be a sign of hope for European societies.
