'Grexit': Descending into pandemonium

Opinion by Anna van Densky

An abrupt Greek withdrawal from Brussels' emergency Eurogroup meeting marked a belligerent era in the relationship between Athens and the 'Troika'. The EU and Greek electorate have been hit hard by the Greek drama, because the Greeks have been haphazard in their decisions - the negotiators learned about the end of talks by Twitter only while working on the final draft. The EU is too rigid, because it has not shown enough  flexibilty to accept some of points that are really crucial for Greeks, such as modest taxation of the 2,000 islands. Is Greece breaking away from the eurozone? Or doomed to stay? Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, like Odysseus the Cunning, navigates between a rock and a hard place, turning towards public support with a spontaneous referendum. However the move is overdue – as the deadline of debt payments will expire five days prior, shrouding the country's future in gloom.

The plea by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to Greek people to vote 'Yes' to questions that might be posed in the upcoming plebiscite revealed the deplorable state of affairs – the future of Greeks in the European family is at stake. However, nobody knows exactly what the referendum will be about and where it will lead the nation, as the programme, supposedly to be put on vote is overdue by 30 June, and IMF boss Christine Lagradre has clearly stated that beyond that date she has nothing to offer.

Within this entirely new situation, the breaking away from the Eurocentric dogmatism dealing with Greece's looming exit from the eurozone remains the key to the minimization of damage from the country's increasingly problematic endeavour, which can only degrade with lack of flexibility by the key players.

The articulated concept of Greece's departure from eurozone inevitably leading to an EU exit - the one declared by European Parliament President Martin Schulz - is particularly perilous. While there are still EU members who have not yet joined the eurozone, imposing an exit on such grounds seems utterly unfair, but the claims for Greece to stay in the eurozone by force because of the exit non-approval of the other 18 members is no less bizarre.

The fair attitude might lie in between these two positions, allowing Tsipras's government some space to manoeuvre and find a compromise between the Eurocentric and Eurosceptic groups to avoid the dangers of a schism, especially taking into account the country's past, which has been marked by coup-d'états and the rule of 'black generals'.

Boxing Greeks into desperation will not add sympathy for the EU apparatchiks in the eyes of the population, who have felt as if they have been 'waterboarded' for the past five year, as Tsipras has claimed. The EU's imposed rigidity will lead to instability in Greece.

The overthrow of the leftist government might be a dream for some in the European political family, but the price for this desired mechanical change might be too high – Greek as a fugitive already has visible side effects on the European Union as a whole.

Before his departure, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis warned of 'unleashing forces no-one can tame' in case the deal is not reached - this sounds like a line from the Greek classics, but one should not be misled by the outdated pathos of his rhetoric. Greek political passions have always been flying high, and taking into account the matrix of the country's modern history, might prove fatal for Europe.

If Greece descends into pandemonium, the EU will have no chance to survive as the peace and prosperity project it was conceived as originally.

Share this article: