The referendum in Greece yielded a clear «no» to a confusing question – about an offer not actually presented by creditors. All told, not much changed. Domestically, the result mattered as allowing the government of Alexis Tsipras to continue its rhetoric of refusing austerity. Meanwhile, no answers were provided to pay for such policy.
Somewhat surprisingly, right after the result was declared a chief architect of current Greek positions – the finance minister Yanis Varoufakis – chose to exit the arena. The reason cited was unwillingness in some eurozone colleagues to continue talking to him. On the other hand, it does seem like escape from a situation where nothing became easier for Greece. Doubtless, Mr Varoufakis will continue as European political star to be admired by many.
What next? Perhaps, today’s eurozone summit will provide a direction, but to move forward it does take a weighty input from the Greeks. Should anybody believe that Greece now possesses this tremendous mandate to demand debt to be written off, this is but an illusion. The illusion could only be based on an assumption that Greece is the only nation in the eurozone where leaders care for democracy and need to consider the voice of the people.
Let’s think for a moment what would happen if Estonia’s government came before Riigikogu with some package prescribing that we will not expect Greece to pay us back (but even the tiny Estonia has secured hundreds of millions of euros of Greek loans) or some new programme would be accepted with milder reform conditions and more generous support – to be carried out by the very government of Mr Tsipras.
It would probably turn out like in other eurozone nations: such moves would never get majority acceptance. Especially not in nations which chose complex cuts during the recession – including the Baltics, Ireland, Portugal – or lands where the average pensioner lives a life quite modest compared to what the Greek pensions still do allow. The tactics of extortion can never succeed.
At the end of the day, the fate of Greece is in the hands of the Greeks. The key has not been handed to Brussels, Berlin or Frankfurt. For Greece, there’s no escaping the economic reforms even if they choose to challenge their creditors and European institutions. No matter the currency they’ll use in the future, no matter what happens to current banks in the land. One pities the ordinary Greeks, however, subject to such revolutionary economic experiments.