International

Emile Roemer and Ewout Irrgang in Syntagma Square in Athens

An SP delegation consisting of party leader Emile Roemer, Member of Parliament Ewout Irrgang, General Secretary Hans van Heijningen and financial affairs adviser Arnold Merkies has spent the last few days visiting Athens, where the four discussed the explosive issue of Greek debt with politicians, researchers, senior officials and protesting citizens.

Elena Panaritis

The central question was how useful it would be to continue along the path imposed by the EU and IMF, of new loans, bigger debts and no discernible solutions. According to PASOK (social democrat) MPs Elena Panaritis and Andreas Makrypides there is no alternative to the current policy of accepting new loans from EU and IMF - loans which run once more into billions of euros - in combination with the Greek government’s spending cuts.

Left critics of the policy, who include leader of Syria (the radical left coalition) Alexis Tsipras and publisher Vangelis Chorafas, argue that the exisiting policy is leading to a deepening of the economic and financial crisis. In their opinion the banks should be abolishing a sizable slice of the Greek debt and neither Greek nor Dutch taxpayer will gain anything from the billions in aid which, after a quick turn round the Acropolis, will go directly into the coffers of the major European banks. These banks have earned a great deal from the high risk premium which they have imposed on Greece. Now that Greece turns out to be unable to pay back either principal or interest, these creditors should also be expected to take losses and not expect help from taxpayers elsewhere in Europe.

At the same time reforms in Greece are urgently needed. ‘I’m shocked by the extent of the problems in Greece,’ says Emile Roemer. ‘Tax evasion, stifling bureaucracy, nepotism, and a partly dysfunctional official apparatus. These are matters which in each case must be urgently addressed.’

The combination of debt annulment, reforms and reduction of the deficit is necessary, yet is resisted from many sides. On the one side stand those who, from fear of doomsday scenarios, are anxious to spare the banks as far as is possible and thus shun the idea of debt annulment, while on the other are the growing protests by ordinary Greeks who must face the consequences of the crisis with no sign of any improvement. 'Ordinary Greeks have had it up to here with their political leaders, who can scarcely any longer show their faces on the street,’ says Roemer. ‘The uncertainty, frustration and anger are great. Knocking problems back is never good, but in a case like this it can even be life-threatening.’