Buffoon leaders... and how we milked the EU, by veteran Greek columnist and commentator

[snooper2]

96. yep, but he blames center left and center right, and makes some good points

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The party ended when the you-know-what hit the fan around 2010. Soaring wages and gold-plated pensions had to end. Eternal austerity was the antidote. It was like taking a middleweight boxer, putting him on a very strict diet, and expecting him to become a heavyweight contender. It was and remains an impossibility.

Three successive Greek prime ministers played along with the EU charade of austerity, bankrupting the nation further, until the present bunch of ex-student activists and so-called academics came along.
Which brings me to the present.

What EU bureaucrats expect of Greece is a contradiction in terms. Austerity cannot grow an economy. But the EU’s only commitment is to keep the union going, with face-saving devices invented as it staggers along. The fact that austerity will never turn Greece into a northern European economy is obvious, but ignored by the bureaucrooks of Brussels who see only the immediate future.

Tsipras and Yanis Varoufakis, his buffoon of a finance minister, have a lot to answer for. They have wasted five months playing liar’s poker while showing off to the media. During those months the economy has totally cratered. The Yes or No vote of today is as confusing to the voters as the policy Tsipras has pursued that could lead to a collective economic suicide. As a Greek whose family helped finance the war of independence against the Turks in 1821, I sincerely hope the ill-advised plebiscite will be ignored by the powers-that-be in the EU. Putting so complex and fateful a question on such short notice is short-sighted and ridiculous.