GREECE No biggie: the crisis killed democracy

The dubious relationships between the European Union and democracy must have played a part in yesterday"s announcement of the imminent resignation of Greek PM Giorgios Papandreou, a resignation which was later denied in a piece of news broadcasted by the Greek public television.

As must have probably did the announcement that Papandreou said he was willing to cancel the plan to call for a referendum (meaning it would just be used as a Damocles" sword).

That the European Union can no longer be bothered with democracy, is obvious from the hostile reaction to Papandreou"s plan to call for a Referendum, which means that the Greeks would be called to decide whether or not they accept the extremely harsh austerity measures, which are prerequisites to the EU and the IMF releasing 130 billion Euros to Greece.

Everyone (including yours truly) was outraged after the referendum was announced, viewing it as the Greeks resorting to blackmail and playing a cynical and dirty game, but here is the opinion of one of the readers of BURSA, posted yesterday, among the comments on our website:

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• 5. The Greek lesson

(message sent by Tudor Vasiliu on 02.11.2011, 09:11)

It"s hard to go against the grain in this deluge of hot-headed opinions, but I will try anyway:

1. The Greeks invented democracy.

2. In civilized countries, the referendum is the main manifestation of democracy.

3. No reasonable politician is going to pass "austerity measures" without the approval of a simple majority of those who are concerned by these "measures".

4. The backstabbing conditions of the loans given to Greece it"s not something you"d expect from a "family", like Sarkozy claims the EU is.

In short, what we have here is a lesson in democracy and economics which the Greeks are giving us with directness, rather than perfidy.

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Since the initial comment was in Romanian, I"ve checked the dictionary to see whether the word "directness" exists in Romanian; turns out it does.

The absence of the word would have been the only objection I could have raised to the comment of Tudor Vasiliu, because, regardless of how much we suspect Papandreou of trying to go behind the back of Europeans and deal with the Chinese and of is using democracy as a weapon against the things he doesn"t like in his negotiations with the EU, it is still true: how can you force your people into slavery, for at least nine years of unprecedented austerity, without asking them to make a choice on the matter?!

It"s like people have gone all of a sudden crazy and feel something like that is OK!

What is more important: that Papandreou is playing his own game? Or the fact that under the circumstances, the people can decide its fate by itself?

The referendum, as a fair (democratic) outcome of some (potentially) dirty schemes and political considerations (as indicated by Papandreou"s statement made yesterday: "The referendum was never a goal in itself"), should cause the perfidy of the plan to take a backseat.

Thank you, Tudor Vasiliu!

When one looks at it from this angle, it would be hard to believe that going back on the idea of referendum, would not cause the people of Greece to revolt.

That is why, from a democratic point of view, the immediate reactions of the European officials, who started threatening Greece with expulsion from the Eurozone, and perhaps from the European Union as well, are absolutely regrettable imprudent actions, from the point of view of democracy.