The referendum in Greece next Sunday shows the political weakness of an international power like the EU. David against Goliath. This is how some define the negotiation process. Others see it the opposite: saviors of the common good against the pirates of the Aegean. The latter are a bit arrogant. They surely forget that Greece is not a guest or a defaulter. Greece is a partner of the EU that has problems. In recent years, its citizens have been subjected to a brutal restructuring process (salary cuts, pension cuts, public spending cuts) like no other country has ever seen in peacetime.In the opinion of many analysts, they have already more than purged all the excesses and sins of which they were widely accused and have even expelled those who ruled them not long ago and who did turn out to be pirates of peg leg.
But that’s it. End. We must give way to a new stage. Now the question is that there are millions of European citizens on the poverty line, millions of citizens unemployed and millions of citizens without a vital project. That is why many of us find the position of those who today decide in Europe on behalf of Europeans to be very irresponsible, as well as illegitimate. Furthermore, the position of many heads of governments, Greece’s partners in the negotiation, publicly disqualifying the role played by the current representatives of the agonizing Greek society, is certainly unfair.
Amidst mixed sentiment, Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman champion the academic NO of economists and bet on David raising his voice and drawing a great OXI to Merkel, Lagarde and Junker. That will be, in his opinion, the best way to strengthen the European Union and prepare it for the next 50 years. Building democratic and common institutions, which do not act on the side and which answer directly to the European citizens. That is why it is important that Junker stops giving lessons of Europeanism to the citizens and understand that the next NO for Greece in the referendum is not a no to Europe or the euro. Quite the opposite. It is a resounding NO to the indignity of what is being tried to sneak into a few million European citizens.
In a YES to democracy and the true civilized Europe of which, paradoxes of life, the ancient Greeks were architects. Europe, which in the world is synonymous with democracy, is worth it. A NO will never be more positive.