With extreme nervousness the world follows the latest political crisis Greece goes through. Neos Kosmos in today’s edition covers the last days’ developments which according to different world media reports, mark a new, and more dangerous, chapter in the country’s ongoing debt crisis and political landscape. We seeked the opinion of a regular contributor of Neos Kosmos, politics analyst and senior Lecturer in the School of Political and Social Inquiry at Monash University Dr Nick Economou who gave us his own take on the political situation. Dr Economou did not fell short of saying that possible upcoming elections seem to be best outcome of the current political crisis.
PAPANDREOU ALONG WITH EUROPE, TRAPPED
Dr Economou according to your view, what led to the current political crisis in Greece?
What I understand is that in Greece the real problem is tax evasion and this is so difficult to deal with. Especially when you are dealing with an economy in which there is evasion is so deeply entrenched. It is a cultural feature of the place and because of the urgency of the financial crisis the government tries to move quickly to solve the financial crisis. If you can’t raise revenue you try to cut expenditure. So the government is caught in a trap here. If they try to raise revenue enforcing tax compliance they will get the rich upset and the rich will go against them. We all know that. I believe that this is what led to this situation.
In other words this political crisis is solely a Greek issue?
No, it seems to me that there is a concern in relation of what is happening in Greece about the future of the EU itself and looking at this over a period of time I think that it was almost inevitable that there was going to be a conflict in Europe between those who see EU as a way of forcing neoclassical liberal economics and they tend to be countries like Britain and Germany and those who see EU as a massive wealth distribution system, taking money from the big industrial countries and redistributing it in countries like Greece. It looks like it is coming now and the future of EU as an economic union it is at stake here. -So do you think that Greece will default? In these circumstances the EU countries would not want for Greece to go under but by the same token, Germany has its own financial problems and the situation of the US economy, which has as well its own issues, it might be the case in the near future that Germany will not be in the position to bail out Greece.
FRIGHTENING STUFF
Do you think that the rise of political extremism is possible in Greece?
At the moment no countries which face a financial crisis have fallen to political extremism. Greek politics though has always been more polarised. The Irish party system is nowhere near as polarised left or right as it is in Greece. In Ireland you have two major parties but they are more like the Democrats and the Republicans in US. In Greece there is a much more rigid ideological divide between left and right and Greece like a number of other southern European countries also have a very well organised political party for the extreme right or the extreme left.
So I think there is a lot of nervousness about what might happen politically as a result of this. For arguments shake let’s say that the government collapses and there is an election and we see the rise of the power of extremist parties. It might be the case that New Democracy and Pasok might be forced into some sort of national coalition to try and outflank extreme parties of the left or the right. So I think that an election can work in a positive way for the country. I know that there is not a culture of the two parties coming together, but you do have a parliament where it is possible for minor extreme parties to come into power and the chances are that neither of the parties will end up having a majority which in this case means the only option they will have to seriously consider is to form a national unity coalition. Otherwise you might end up in a situation where the parliamentary system just can’t work, can’t respond and well history teaches us that if that happens in some cases you get extreme political outcomes.
Extreme political outcomes? What do you mean?
Well I avoid using terms such us dictatorship that but that is implicit. I mean, the thing about a country like Greece is that it’s got that past record. It was not that long ago that the power went over the hands of a civilian government to the hands of a military government. That would be terribly shocking if that was to happen and that would cause a huge furore within the European Union because the overarching assumption is that united European politics is based on the principle of the supremacy of liberal democracy, the supremacy of democratically elected governments. If one of these countries suddenly, had it done in the past, abandon democracy and go for a dictatorship of some sort that would add a political crisis to the economic crisis in the EU. What a mess that would be! I am not sure that it would get that far but extreme political parties getting more power during difficult times is a normal voters response.
Dr Economou concluded that Papandreou’s position is very difficult at this time adding the only hope that Greece has at this stage is for the two major parties to “come to some sort of unity”. “It is a very serious situation, it is frightening stuff. If the government cannot govern then the country will reach at some other way of governing itself and this way might be outside the democratic principles of governance”.
