I am here in Athens for the elections this weekend. I must state, at this point in the game it appears to be Greek theater with Brussels pulling the strings and the politicians merely playing parts. Whoever governs is almost a moot point for it seems that the political forces are not interested in an honest democratic process — a process that happens to originate from Athens. The political forces appear to be simply prepared to fit in with whatever the country’s international creditors demand.
The Greek people seem to be staring into the abyss with no chance of reversing the economic decline. What governments do not comprehend is rather stark: when the people lose the right to vote, dictatorships emerge. That historically leads to revolution. If the political forces of Europe do not listen to the people, this will lead to civil unrest, uprisings, and revolution. Often when government senses an uprising, it will seek an external enemy to blame. Revolution is then only avoidable by war with another nation. This is the cold blunt truth of history.
Between the capital controls and the protests, the one thing Greece had was tourism. My sources on the ground tell me that tourism has been off by about 30% this summer. The tourists who did come to Greece seem to have headed to the islands rather than Athens. While the banks were closed to citizens, tourists could still use their credit cards and access cash at an ATM with a foreign card.
The new elections this weekend have barely caused even the slightest ripple in the tidal flows of capital and market movements. The left-wing Syriza government turned strangely right-wing after doing whatever Brussels demanded. The previous anti-austerity stance of the people was ignored and the wings of this movement appear to have been clipped by leader Alexis Tsipras’ betrayal of the Greek people. The polls now suggest either Syriza, or the more establishment New Democracy, will be the lead partner in a pro-bailout coalition.
Ah, how things have changed. It appears that this is indeed right on target for 2015.75 for the politicians of Greece will simply ignore the hardship of the Greek people and buy into Europe to stay with the political club as lap dogs of Brussels. The price of this betrayal may be very costly going into 2017.
