I am honoured to be here, but ashamed that
I don't speak your language. So, let me begin: Late in his life,
Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, asked the famous question;
“What does a woman want?” Admitting the perplexity, when faced with the
enigma of feminine sexuality. And a similar perplexity arises today;
“What does Europe want?”
This is the question you, the Greek people are addressing
Europe. Because you know what you want, you want this guy to be your
next Prime Minister. Europe doesn't know what it wants. The way European
States and Media relates to what is going on now in Greece, is, I
think, the best indicator of what kind of Europe they want. Is it the
neo-liberal Europe, is it the Europe of isolationist states or maybe
something different. Critics accuse SYRIZA of being a threat to the
Euro, but SYRIZA is, on the contrary, the only chance for Europe. Far
from being a threat. You are giving a chance to Europe to break out of
its inertia to find a new way.
In his notes towards a definition of culture, the great
conservative poet, T.S. Eliot, remarked the moments when the only choice
is between heresy and non-belief. That is to say moments when the only
way to keep a belief, to keep religion alive, is to perform a sectarian
split from the main course.
This is what happens today with Europe; only a new heresy
represented at this moment by SYRIZA, can save what is worth saving in
the European legacy; Democracy, trusting people, egalitarian solidarity.
The Europe that will win, if SYRIZA is out-maneuvered is a Europe with
Asian values - and of course these Asian values have nothing to do with
Asia, but with the clear and present tendency of contemporary capitalism
to suspend democracy.
SYRIZA is said to lack the proper experience to govern.
Yes, I agree, they lack the experience of how to bankrupt a country by
cheating and stealing. You don't have this experience. This brings us to
the absurdity of the politics of the European establishment; they bring
the preach of paying taxes, opposing Greek clientelism and they put all
their hopes on the coalition of the two parties which brought to Greece
this clientelism.
Christine Lagarde, recently said that she has more
sympathy for the poor inhabitants of the Niger, than for Greeks, and she
even advised the Greeks to help themselves by paying their taxes,
which, as I found a few days ago, she doesn't have to pay. Like all
liberal humanitarians, she likes the impotent poor who behave like
victims, evoke our sympathy and bring us to give charity.
But the problem with you Greeks is that you suffer, yes,
but you are not passive victims, you resist, you fight, you do not want
sympathy and charity, you want active solidarity. You want and you
demand a mobilization, a support for your fight.
SYRIZA is accused of promoting leftist fictions, but it is
the austerity plan, imposed by Brussels, which clearly is a work of
fiction. Everybody knows that this plan is fictitious, that the Greek
state, cannot ever repay the debt, in this way. In a strange gesture of
collective make-belief, everyone ignores the obvious nonsense of the
financial projection on which the European plans are based.
So why does Brussels impose these measures on you? The
true aim of these measures is not to save Greece, but of course to save
the European banks.
These measures are not presented as decisions grounded in
political choices, but as necessities imposed by neutral economic logic.
Like, if we want to stabilize our economy, we simply have to swallow
the bitter pill. Or, by tautological proverbial sayings, like you cannot
spend more than you produce. Well, the American banks and United States
as such, are a big proof, for decades, that you can spend more than you
produce.
To illustrate the mistake of austerity measures, Paul
Krugman, often compares them to the medieval practice of blood letting. A
nice metaphor, which I think should be radicalized, further. The
European financial doctors, themselves not sure about how this medicine
works, are using you as test-rabbits, they are letting your blood, not
the blood of their own countries. There is no blood letting for the
German and French banks. On the contrary, they are getting big
transfusions.
So is SYRIZA, really, a group of dangerous extremists? No,
SYRIZA is here to bring pragmatic common sense. To clear the mess
created by others. It is those who impose austerity measures who are
dangerous dreamers. The true dreamers are those who think that things
can go on, indefinitely, the way they are just with some cosmetic
changes. You are not dreamers; you are awakening from a dream, which is
turning into a nightmare.
You are not destroying anything; you are reacting to how
the system is gradually destroying itself. We all know the classic scene
from cartoons, Tom and Jerry and so on: The cat reaches the precipice,
but goes on walking, ignoring the fact that there is no ground under its
feet, then it only starts to fall down, when it looks down and notices
that there is nothing. This is all you are doing. You are telling those
in power, “hey, look down!” and they are falling down.
The political map of Greece is clear and exemplary; In the
centre, I hope you noticed it, there is, that, one big party, one
party, with two wings, left and right, PASOK and New Democracy. It's
like, you know, Cola, which is Coca and Pepsi, an indifferent choice.
The true name of this party, if you bring PASOK and ND together, should
be something, I think, like NHMAD, New Hellenic Movement Against
Democracy.
Of course, this big party claims that is for democracy,
but I claim they are for decaffeinated democracy. Like, you know, coffee
without caffeine, beer without alcohol, ice cream without sugar. They
want democracy, but democracy where instead of making a choice, people
just confirm what wise experts tell them to do. They want democratic
dialogue? Yes, but, you know, like in the late Plato's dialogues, where
one guy talks all the time, and the other only says, every ten minutes,
“by Zeus, so it is!”
And then, there is the exception. You, SYRIZA, the true
miracle, radical left movement, which stepped out of the comfortable
position of marginal resistance and courageously signaled your readiness
to take power. This is why you have to be punished.
That is why Bill Freyja, recently wrote in the Forbes
magazine, in an article with the title “ Give Greece what it deserves:
Communism.” Here is a short quote:
“What the world needs, let's not forget, is a contemporary
example of communism in action. What better candidate than Greece? Just
toss them out of the European Union, cut off the flow of free Euros and
hand them back their old drachmas. Then, stand back for a generation
and watch". In other words, Greece should be exemplary punished so that
once and for all, the temptation for a radical, leftist solution of the
crisis will be blocked.
I know that the task of SYRIZA is almost impossible.
SYRIZA is not the extreme left madness, it is the voice of pragmatic
reason, counteracting the market ideology madness. SYRIZA will need the
formidable combination of principle politics and rootless pragmatism of
democratic commitment and readiness to act fast and brutally when
needed. If you, SYRIZA are to be given a chance, a minimal chance to
succeed, you will also need pan-European solidarity.
This is why I think, you, here in Greece, should avoid
cheep nationalism, all the talk about how Germany wants to re-occupy
you, destroy you and so on. Your first task is to change things here.
SYRIZA will have to do the job, which the other guys should have done.
The job of building a better, modern - an effective state. The job of
clearing the state apparatus from clientelism. It's a hard job, there is
nothing enthusiastic in it, it's slow, hard, boring job.
Your pseudo-radical critics are telling you that the
situation is not yet right for the true social change. That if you take
power now, you will just help the system, making it more efficient. This
is, if I understand it correctly, what KKE, which is basically the
party of the people who are still alive because they forgot to die, are
telling you.
It is true, that your political elite demonstrated its
inability to rule, but there will never be a moment when the situation
will be fully right for the change. If you wait for the right moment,
the right moment will never come. When you intervene, it is always
immature. So, you have a choice: Either comfortable wait and look how
your society is disintegrating, as some other parties of the Left
suggest, or heroically intervene, fully aware of how difficult the
situation is. And SYRIZA made the right choice.
Your critics hate you, because, I think, secretly, they
know you have the courage to be free and to act as free people. When you
are in the eyes of the public, those who observe you understand, at
least for the flash of an instant, that you are offering them freedom.
You dare do what they also dream about. For that instant, they are free.
They are one with you. But it is only for a moment. Fear returns and
they hate you again, because they are afraid of their own freedom.
So, what is the choice that you, the Greek people, are
facing on June 17? You should bear in mind the paradox that sustains the
free vote in democratic societies: You are free to chose on condition
that you are making the right choice. Which is why, when the choice is
the wrong one, for example when Ireland voted against the European
constitution, the wrong choice is treated as a mistake and you know,
they want to repeat the voting, in order to enlighten the people to make
the right choice. And this is why the European establishment is in a
panic. They see that maybe, you don't deserve your freedom, because
there is a danger that you will make the wrong choice.
There is a wonderful joke in Earns Lubifish, classical
comedy, Ninoxka: The hero, listens carefully, visits a cafeteria and
orders a coffee without cream. The waiter replies “Sorry, but we have
run out of cream, we only have milk, so can I bring you coffee without
milk?” So, in both cases, you get coffee alone, but I think the joke is a
correct one. You know negation also matters. The coffee without cream
is not the same as the coffee without milk. You are in the same
predicament today; the situation is difficult. You will get some kind of
austerity, but will you get the coffee of austerity without cream, or
without milk? It is here that the European establishment is cheating.
The European establishment is acting as if you will got the coffee of
austerity without cream. That is to say that the fruits of your hardship
will not profit only European banks, but they are effectively offering
you coffee without milk, it is you who will not profit from your own
sacrifice and hardship.
In the very South of Peloponnese, round Mani, I was there,
I know it, the so-called weepers; women that you hire to cry at
funerals. They can do the spectacle for the relatives of the diseased.
Now, there is nothing primitive about this. We, in our developed
societies, are doing exactly the same. Think about this wonderful
invention, I think maybe the greatest contribution of America to the
world culture, the so-called can-laughter. You know, the laughter, which
is part of their sound track on TV. Like, you know, you can go home
tired, you put on TV some stupid show like Cheers or Friends and you
just sit and the TV, even laughs for you. And, unfortunately, it works.
That's how those in power, the European establishment,
wants to see, not only Greek people, but all of us: Just staring at the
screen and observe how the others are doing the dreaming, crying and
laughing. There is an apocryphal but wonderful anecdote about the
exchange of telegrams between German and Austrian army headquarters in
the middle of the First World War: The Germans sent a message to the
Austrians; “Here, on our part of the front, the situation is serious,
but not catastrophic.” The Austrians replied; “Here, the situation is
catastrophic but not serious.”
This is the difference between SYRIZA and others: For the
others, the situation is catastrophic, but not serious, things can go on
as usual, while for SYRIZA, the situation is serious, but not
catastrophic, since courage and hope should replace fear. So, what is
ahead of you is to quote the title of an old song of the Beatles, “a
long and winding road.” When decades ago, the cold war threatened to
explode into a hot one, John Lennon wrote a song, you remember it, if
you are old enough, “all we are saying is give peace a chance.” Today, I
want to hear a new song all around Europe, “all we are saying is give
Greece a chance.”
Allow me just to conclude with a reference to one of your
greatest maybe, the greatest classical tragedies, Antigone: Don't fight
battles, which are not your battles. In my idea of Antigone, we have
Antigone and Creon. These are just to sects of the ruling class. This
is, a little bit, like PASOK and New Democracy. In my version of
Antigone, while the two members of the royal families are fighting each
other, threatening to ruin the state, I would like to see the chorus,
the voices of the people, stepping out of this stupid role of just wise
comment, take over, constitute a public committee of people's power,
arrest both of them, Creon and Antigone and establish the people's
power.
Just allow me now to finish with a personal note. I hate
the traditional, intellectual left, which likes revolution but the
revolution, which takes place somewhere far away. This is why when I was
young, the further away it is, the better; Vietnam, Cuba, even today,
Venezuela. But you are here, and that's what I admire. You are not
afraid to engage in a desperate situation, knowing how the odds are
against you. And this is what I admire. You know, there is also a
principled opportunism, opportunism of principles. When you say the
situation is lost, we cannot do anything, because we would betray our
principles, this appears to be a principled position, but it's really
the extreme form of opportunism. SYRIZA is a unique event of how
precisely that left -in contradiction to what the usual
extra-parliamentary left does, that cares more if some criminals' human
rights are violated, than if thousands are dying- gathered the courage
to do something. So I conclude now with a great honor to give the word
to your future prime minister.
