What will the Greeks sacrifice to satisfy the creditors? Which banks are to pay for the Greek debts? How soon will be Europe destroyed? And how will Greece secure the power balance in the Mediterranean, so vital for the Russian interests. - Pravda.Ru conducted an interview with Dimitris Konstantakopoulos, a well-known Greek journalist and writer.
- One of the major events this week is referendum in Greece. With 61,31% voting against austerity measures, the Greek people turned out to be the first to say no. As for the other European countries, such a referendum would obviously have the same results. What for did the Greek hold it?
- Greeks were put to a very simple question. That is, whether they want the continuation of the program that German and European elites, the IMF, the ECB, the European Commission have imposed on Greece, or they don't want it. This is the basic question which they answered. And there is a question going on with it, "do you want your country being ruled by Merkel, Dijsselbloem, by Lagarde, by Mario Draghi, and by Brussels bureaucrats, or you want a country to be run by the Greek people?" And they answered in a very categoric and clear way. Besides that, you have to take into account when evaluating this vote, that it was given in the context of terrible lies and terror campaigns. All mass media in Greece, except state mass media, presented a "no" vote as an apocalypse. They said that after it the country will be destroyed, it will be kicked out of the EU, and any bad thing you can only imagine, may happen. And it was very important, because I have seen such campaigns in other referendums in other countries.
But in the case of Greece this referendum took place with banks closed and in conditions of an escalating financial war by the EU authorities against the Greek people. The threat that they received, was not only from the domestic mass media, but also from such powerful states like Germany, like the EU, the IMF. The threats had begun to be applied and they were seeing results in everyday life. This is why the "no" we said on Sunday, is no less important than the "no" we said to Benito Mussolini in 1940, when he asked for the surrender of our country. Maybe at that times the means were military, at this time they are financial. But after all, in both cases it is a war against the Greek nation state. It is an attempt to conquer Greece. It was also an irrational option. The Greek people made a more rational decision than people who were making propaganda against them. We have a 5-year experience of what this program (that was supposed to save Greece)is, and where it has lead us - to a drop in GDP of 27-28%. It is bigger than the material losses of France or Germany during the WWI. We have the economic consequences of quite a big war, and we are not answering with war. On Sunday the Greeks asked their leadership to answer to the war the country is receiving.
- There is also an evident challenge to Eurocracy. But Yanis Varoufakis, Minister of Finance, resigned. He claimed that some European members at the negotiations and other "partners" wouldn't like to see him at the negotiating table. Is he afraid?
- I don't think that he is afraid. Varoufakis was sacrificed by the government in an effort to satisfy creditors' demands. I'm not sure that this kind of manoeuvre in satisfying the creditors will succeed. As after Varoufakis the creditors will want Tsipras to go out of the government. And if Tsipras resigns, the creditors will ask the whole Syriza government to resign. The problem with Greece is not a matter of persons, but of the essence of applying to the problem. But they have decided so. I hope it is a sign of a tactical choice, and not a sign of the Syriza's government wish to compromise with creditors at any cost.
- Will Europe forgive the Greece its debts? Or rather punish for the challenge? And how?
- The question of the Greek debt is quite complicated. The fact is that the program was supposed to address the debt question of Greece. As a result of the program applied, the debt which was 120% of the GDP when this crisis began in 2010, is 180% now. It is worsening every day. We'll never be able to repay that. But I want to say another thing. This debt was created. In 2010 the country was in a state of near bankruptcy. It could not service this debt. Normally, it would have to stop servicing this debt, and try to find an arrangement with its private creditors. That is with big international banks and with hedge funds in other financial institutions, instead of that European governments have pressed Greece to accept, to change all this debt that was to private banks as to a debt towards other sates. I mean European states just gave money to pay the private banks and the hedge funds which control all European governments today, except for the Greek government. And now they have created this program. The Greek debt must be paid partially by Greeks. And must be paid by those who made the conspiracy to make it a debt towards the state. And these are the Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas Bank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and so on. All this policy is not a European policy. It is presented as a European policy. It is a result of a policy which is decided by finance and it is presented by the European politicians, who are servicing the interests of the finance, and who are usually very corrupt, and they can not do anything else.
- Italy's Finance Ministrysaid Sunday: The Eurozone"is capable of coping with a crisisof confidence and possible speculative attacks". Which speculativeattacks do they mean?
- Initially, it is obvious that if they go on with this pattern, if they will go to a huge crisis with Greece, or even an exit from the EU, then the results will be devastating for Europe. First of all, the Europe will be politically devastated, because it's easier. Even at the time when they were bombing Iraq, Libya, better to destroy European countries, it was not so easy. And all this mess will have very huge political,financial and economic percussions. Europe will run the risk of being suddenly destroyed very much like the Soviet Union in 1991. This is not a crisis which they can handle. If they go on with this policy, if they don't change radically the way they treat private banks, the way they treat the sovereign debt problem, the way they treat Greece, and the way they treat Europen future, if they don't reconsider radically the Maastricht system, then it is very probable that Europe will be destroyed.
- Greece considers issuing IOU currency. What the currency is it?
- It is not officially, at least Greece does not considerany such plan. On the contrary, the Greek government has said that they stick for the participation of Greece in the Euro. But we don't know what will really happen, because we don't know how the crisis will evolve. At some point, if Greece has no other financial means, it will be necessary for the government either to go to a capitulation towards Brussels and Berlin, or to issue its own currency to be able to pay its people and run the economy. The other possibility is to find a compromise, acceptable for both sides. It is not excluded, but with what we know now, it does not seem to me as a very probable outcome of this problem.
- Which is the situation in Greece right now? Have the banks opened?
- No, the banks remain closed. People are keeping more or less calm. But this is not the situation which can go on, given the debt. We have right to take 60 Euros a day, but the country will not survive by getting 60 Euros from the banks every day. So, this is the situation which I don't think can go very far. In some days, maximum some weeks, it will be impossible to keep the situation as it is now. Yesterday Mario Draghi, President of the ECB supported the ECB, as he is a vectorer of Goldman Sachs. It is obvious that it is influenced by high international finance. So, this Goldman Sachs man, who is acting as an unelected economic PM of Europe, has made his task towards Greece even harder, so precipitating the blow out of this situation. My progress is that we'll go towards a blow up. But this is a crisis, that you can not predict exactly. Many outcomes are possible.
By the way, if Greeks are able to sustain relative independence and national state, it is of enormous importance for the strategic equilibrium in the Mediterranean and for the most vital Russian interests in the region. Every time when the West has attacked Greece or Cyprus, it was in the context for the preparation of a huge attack against the East, the Slavic East, Russia, like in 1941 they attacked one year after the attack on Greece, or against Cyprus which is used for mid-Eastern interventions. So, it will be very good for Russian interests and for stability in the world, if we stop this attack against the Greek nation state here in Greece and not have to wait for more difficult battles later.
Interview conducted by Galina Tychinskaya
Pravda.Ru