Interview: Hope for Greece after the elections?

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• published: 26 Jun 2012
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On 17 June the eurozone held its breath waiting for the Greek election results. The Greeks have decided in favour of the euro and the EU, but a difficult road lies ahead. For many it's time to look positively into the future and to lay down arms. Athens expects Germany in particular to change its approach. What will change in the relations? We asked two Members of Parliament, German MEP Werner Langen and Greek MEP Nikos Chountis. Will the relations change now? The agreements aren't German terms and conditions, they are mutual agreements. They are based on the total failure of Greek policy, which wasn't able to carry out reforms and bring about growth. There continues to be harsh pressure, especially from Germany, for Greece to stick to the agreements. But the agreements, by which I mean the memorandum, are a failed recipe. Ms Merkel herself admitted that the first memorandum was wrong. This is a contestation of the political austerity she wants to impose in Europe. The election results are a first step. What needs to happen now? First they have to sort things out in their own country. Taxes have to be paid, the rich should no longer receive special treatment, bureaucracy has to be changed completely, investment conditions have to be established, and an agreement with the unions has to be reached so that they stop paralysing Greece with strikes. These are the problems. Why has tourism declined in Greece? Because even at the airport people had to deal with striking bus and taxi drivers. How can they trust a system that is killing itself? The election results in Greece, the first country with austerity policies to be implemented via a memorandum, will also have an effect on other countries, especially those under a memorandum. I think it was a strong statement by the Greek people to refuse the austerity policies and a sign to Europe that these policies are not viable. They encounter resistance from all Europeans. Why should the voters trust the parties that have led Greece into this dead end? I'm still sceptical that it will work, but the voters have given a mandate to these two parties. They need to rebuild Greece, either with new staff or new conditions from outside, and bring the democratic development level back from that of a developing country to that of an EU Member State. We are not confident that the parties which will be in power again will change anything. We strongly doubt that they will renegotiate anything and we're sure that the EU leadership and Merkel will not loosen this austerity policy. The President of the Commission has rarely visited Greece, if at all. Has Brussels done a useful job or could we have expected more from the institutions? The Commission hasn't intervened much at all and even embellished the situation. Now it's looking for unworkable solutions, such as eurobonds, which are incompatible with European law. Neither Mr Barroso nor his Commission deserve any praise. I don't think Mr Barroso has been to Greece since 2009. Whether that's necessary or not, is debatable. Many have been to Greece recently, many representatives of the EU. Many claimed that they wanted to help Greece. But most of them came to propagate Merkel's scaremongering. And I'm not afraid to point out that Mr Schulz did the same. Unfortunately, so did Mr Cohn-Bendit. He was ill-informed and called the Left's programme dangerous. So they're free to come to Greece, nobody will forbid them doing so, but they should arrive there well-informed. EuroparlTV video ID: 3bb35357-8840-427a-8b54-a07700be5131