Alexis Tsipras is a most fortunate politician. After 8
months in office, his policies of defying Austerity, releasing Greece from
EuroZone control and lightening the burden on his people have all turned to dust
and ashes. He has had to submit to the disciplines of the euro, agree to a
further tightening of taxes and start a radical overhaul of the tottering
governmental institutions of Greece to win his €85bn bailout. His SYRIZA party
was badly split, many unwilling to ignore the thumping anti-Europe verdict of
the 5 July referendum, with 30% of his parliamentary members defecting or
fleeing. Tsipras called elections and in many a democracy he would be out on
his ear. In fact he strolled to a comfortable enough victory, albeit on a low
56% turnout, winning 145 seats out of 300, sealing his power by renewing his
coalition with rightist Independent Greeks with their 11 seats. His re-accession
has been greeted with the mother and father of a storm in Athens, thunder,
lightning and a tornado – he has clearly upset the gods, but then we always
knew that Zeus was a crusty backwoodsman Tory, itching to hurl his deadly bolts
at any impertinent upstart.
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| Alexis Tsipras and Panos Kammenos celebrate their renewed coalition |
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| The vanquished Vangelis Meimarakis |
Tsipras’ road back was eased by the weakness of his
opponents. There are now 9 parties in the Greek parliament and SYRIZA’s only
serious rival was conservative New Democracy. It had an interim leader, Vangelis
Meimarakis, a genial Cretan with the eyebrows and moustache of a taverna-owner.
He is very much of the old guard and Greece needs a vision for the future. The
other parties range from the horrible neo-Nazi Golden Dawn to the joyless
hard-line Communists, with some oddball centrists in between. The once mighty
PASOK is now led by lady Fofi Gennimata, easier on the eye than obese and
snarling Evangelos Venizelos, but basically ineffectual. The SYRIZA dissidents,
mainly from the far Left, only polled 2.9% and failed to reach the Parliamentary
threshold of 3%.
Tsipras will have his work cut out to satisfy Brussels and
Berlin. There is no goodwill towards Greece anywhere in Europe and the feeble
Greek civil service will need stiffening by Germans and French just to keep
pace with the changes. Home evictions and pension cuts are certain to raise
popular tensions. The Greek economy needs to grow and there is scant sign of
that as yet. Greece and Grexit may yet come back to haunt the chancelleries of
Europe.
……………………………
A much bigger problem for Europe has been the Migration
Crisis. An unprecedented wave of people (a “swarm” in Cameron’s accurate but
rather unsympathetic phrase) has illegally entered Europe. Many are Syrians,
Libyans and Afghans fleeing civil war or the horrors of ISIL. More are economic
migrants from Turkey, Pakistan, Somalia, Eritrea and sub-Saharan Africa seeking
a better life in prosperous Europe especially in Germany and Scandinavia.
Refugee camps have long bulged in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey (Saudi Arabia and
the Gulf States offering no sanctuary). This summer, the often calm
Mediterranean has been an irresistible magnet for a quick sea journey from
Turkey to the Greek islands or from Libya to Italy. Many drownings have
wrenched the consciences of the West.
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| 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi drowns |
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| A Syrian father in desperation |
Emotions
have run high and many individual kindnesses, charitable instincts and actions
have been stimulated to which all honour is due. Governments in Europe have
been totally confused. Early attempts to fortify or close borders have
manifestly failed. The numbers have been overwhelming around 500,000 arriving
in 2015, already twice the total for 2014, a busy year. There are said to be at
least 4m more wanting to come to Europe. The Greek islands of Lesvos, Cos and
Chios have been inundated. The small port of Mytilene on Lesvos had 3 port
policemen – now swollen to 60 but still not enough. The Greeks have given up
controlling this influx and merely send them to the border with
Skopje-Macedonia and onwards to Serbia, Croatia and Hungary to be met variously
with open arms, pepper-spray and razor-wire. Austria has been generous (20,000 got there last weekend) and refugees were warmly welcomed in the streets of
Munich, with Angela Merkel hailed as an unlikely Mother Theresa figure. However
second thoughts are beginning to appear there.
Germany
and France are backing a quota system to spread the migrants about, but
Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania do not want any (Slovakia only
might take Christians!). Britain will take 20,000 over 5 years.
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| Migrants storming the ferry at Lesvos |
What
to do with them all? In the 1930s there
was talk of settling stateless Europeans in Uganda or Madagascar (doubtful if
the locals were consulted) but it was deemed impractical. I guess we will just
have to live and let live together. Germany claims to have absorbed 8m Turks in
the 50-odd years since 1960 and the migrants are only treading the well-worn
path of the Goths, Vandals, Huns and Vikings. No doubt New Aleppos will spring
up around Augsburg and Sheffield and there will be a resounding culture clash.
I simply plead with our guests to be tactful. It is not quite the done thing to
practice halal ritual slaughter on
the Promenade at Folkestone and do not even think about inflicting FGM on our
Rita down at the Barnsley chippie!
SMD
22.09.15
Text
Copyright © Sidney Donald 2015
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