Syriza: oude wijn in nieuwe zakken
Het is heel spannend nu in Griekenland: niemand weet wat er gaat gebeuren en toch heeft iedereen een mening. In zulke tijden raadpleeg ik altijd een van mijn oudste vriendinnen: ze is Grieks en woont en werkt in Athene. Ik schreef al eens eerder over Tina Plyta en vanuit welk perspectief zij de wereld en het leven aanschouwt.
Gisteren hadden we af en toe contact, maar vanavond kreeg ik een meer uitgebreide mail met haar inzichten. Ik vroeg toestemming om de mail integraal te publiceren op Opiniez, met of zonder haar naam. Dit antwoordde ze:
“No problem, do publish it and if you have to, you can use my name. In any case please specify that I come from a middle class family, I work in the private sector, I have always voted for left wing parties (except Syriza whom I do not consider left wing) and that I am for a European, social democratic Greece. I know all these specifications might seem extreme for such a short text with my opinions, but here we have started to classify people and to judge their opinions accordingly. So I have to make clear that I do not vote for right wing parties and all the rest…
Dearest Maja,
I really hope next time you come we’ll still be using euros!
Things are awful, the worst being a discord in the society. People attack (verbally for now but who knows) anyone and everyone who expresses an opinion different than their own. And this mentality is everywhere and is increasing in intensity and I’m afraid it will destroy us. No matter the result of the referendum, we will be a deeply divided society trying to cope with an extremely difficult situation.
I think that the government has brought the negotiations to a stalemate intentionally. And the things they tell us are not always the truth. Or not the whole truth. I really wonder how they can ask people to decide if they are pro or against a long series of economic measures, without having any knowledge of economics and of the negotiations, without being able to understand economic terms and in deep ignorance of what is at stake.
There are those who believe that leaving the eurozone will be the best possible outcome. But nobody explains how the country is going to be on the 6th of July. And if the outcome is a renewed mandate to remain in the eurozone, who is going to ask for money and from whom? Meanwhile in most other areas the people of Syriza have proven to be exactly like the previous governments the country had.
They only care for the public sector, they have not uttered a single word about the 1,2 million of unemployed in the private sector.
They have returned our educational system decades back, abolishing all attempts of evaluation of teachers, and reintroducing the power of the party-organizations of students in universities.
They have hired back all those who were fired from the public sector: a few thousand of people whose positions were abolished.
They have not attempted any of the structural changes the memorandums we have signed demand since 2010.
They have hired relatives and political friends in almost every case.
They are worse than PASOK was in the 80s.
And they are nothing like the Left we would have wished for: pro-Europe, openminded, fair, against corruption etc.
As you can imagine it’s going to be a very difficult week until the referendum. We don’t know yet if banks will be open tomorrow, if our salaries will be paid on Tuesday, if we’ll still be members of the EU next Monday.
I still hope that we will not exit eurozone or the EU, but you never know what desperate people might vote for. And there are many who believe they have nothing to lose with a grexit.
We’ll see.
Polla filia
Tina”
Update op 29 juni 2015
You probably know that banks are closed and we are allowed 60 euros daily. So far there are huge lines of people in front of cash points and in gasoline stations. Supermarkets on the other hand are working normally.
And busses and the metro are free in Athens until next Monday.
Parties and people in favour of Europe are looking for a personality to lead the debate. Today there is a Syriza demonstration in Syntagma and tomorrow the pro-Europeans organize their own, again in Syntagma. Iraklis and Fefi are planning to go, me and numerous of my friends as well.
Strange times and difficult to say when things will get back to normal again.
Polla filia
Tina
Over de auteur
- 3e generatie, 1 paspoort en nog niet geïntegreerd/ slechte huisvrouw, goede moeder/ leraar en coach in het onderwijs, vmbo/ A'dam/ schrijft/ twittert @MajaMischke
