Interview in SPUTNIK News (12-9-2018) on Tsipras’s speech at the European Parliament

 

 

On the 12th of September I gave an interview in Sputnik News on Tsipras’ speech at the European Parliament. As it is usual such interviews are abridged and this results in the loss of significant parts of them.

I post below a part of the interview that was lost.

 

Interview in SPUTNIK News

Let me make an initial comment: there is a marked difference between the extremely positive presentation of Tsipras’ speech by US media and that of other international media. This is evidence of the SYRIZA government’s blatant subservience to US interests.

Regarding the essence of Tsipras’ speech: it is an essay in hypocrisy mainly for internal electoral reasons. His government’s public rating is crumbling because of its capitulation to the EU-IMF and its austerity policies.

Now Tsipras tries to revamp himself as a ‘progressive European fighter’ and asks for a socially sensitive and solidary EU. This is nonsense. The EU is an imperialist integration where its dominant core (around Germany) exploits its peripheral economies and the EU collectively exploits other countries outside it. This cannot be reformed. This has been proven particularly during these years of the eurozone crisis where core countries treated the peripheral ones like pariahs. Even the recent limited Macron proposals for fiscal transfers from the stronger to the weaker are being turned down.

In the case of the migration crisis, SYRIZA is equally hypocritic. The European migration crisis is mainly the product of Western imperialisms’ devastation of several countries in Asia and Africa. It facilitates the EU ruling classes as it solves the demographic problem and helps keep wages down. But EU wants to do it in a regulated manner. Thus, it has made several countries buffers for the concertation of the bulk of migrants before choosing the portions that the core countries will accept. SYRIZA has acquiescent to this and made Greece such a buffer basket; thus increasing internal tensions and fomenting the far-right wing.

The anti-far right gig is equally hypocritic. The EU establishment is a blend of corrupt right wingers and social-democrats with utter contempt for the popular classes. Their anti-popular policies foment popular discontent. Now in the Western Europe this popular discontent has been – conveniently for the system – channeled to the far-right. The latter is controlled by state mechanisms and operates as a bulwark against a dangerous turn by the popular masses to the Left. This will endanger the system. The far right wont as it is part of it. The Tsipras’ government is part of this trick by fully conforming to the EU directives. Its policies and its pseudo-left declarations foment the far right trend and try to discredit the Left. Tsipras’ calls for a supposedly progressive front with Juncker, Macron, Merkel and the likes are the best recruiter for the far right. The popular forces in Europe should stay away from this bunch and wage their own struggle against both the EU establishment and its far right fellow travelers.

 

The broadcast of the interview follows

 

Finally, below is SPUTNIK’s presentation of my interview in its website

https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201809131067988369-greese-tsipras-eu-crisis-migration-influx/

Tsipras Government’s Rating Crumbling Due to Greek Austerity Policy – Scholar

© REUTERS / Alkis Konstantinidis

Opinion

06:48 13.09.2018

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has warned Europe could face an existential crisis over nationalism unless it owned up to its failure to handle a fiscal crisis and deal with an influx of migrants effectively.

European nations must stand together to fight extremism and avoid sliding back into the past, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told EU parliamentarians in Strasbourg on Tuesday as he looked to the upcoming EU elections in 2019. The firebrand leftist is a frequent critic of European governments but his comments carry fresh weight given Greece’s emergence from a third European bailout and the rise of far right and populist parties in Germany and elsewhere.

© AP Photo / Petros Giannakouris

Greece Exits Final Three-Year Bailout Program – ESM Fund

It will be a fight of basic principles and values to defeat extreme neo-liberalism and right wing populism. He called on the bloc’s pro-European and democratic forces to unite and stand side by side on the same side of history. Sputnik spoke to Stavros D. Mavroudeas, Professor of Political Economy at University of Macedonia about the impact of the Greek Prime Minister’s speech.

Sputnik: What do you make of the speech by Mr Tsipras?

Stavros D. Mavroudeas: Regarding the essence of Tsipras’s speech, it is an insane hypocrisy and it was main internal electoral reasons. His government public rating is crumbling because of its capitulation to the EU and the IMF and austerity policy.

This reason Tsipras tries to revamp himself as a progressive European fighter and asks for socially and solidarity in the European Union. I think this is nonsense, the European Union is an imperialist organization, that it’s dominant core around Germany exploit other economies and the EU collectively exploits other countries outside of it and it cannot be reformed.

© REUTERS / Alkis Konstantinidis

Tragedy of Errors: Timeline History of Greece’s Decade-Long Economic Crisis

Sputnik: Do you think he will be taken seriously by the EU or not?

Stavros D. Mavroudeas: This was in the news; I mean there was a reaction against Tsipras by first the European right wing because it appeared Tsipras was lecturing them where as they know he is on his knees.

So there was an attack on him for saying big words again.

There was also a reaction from the Social Democratic wing, more measured, because it is well known the European social democracy courts with Syriza and wants to enlist Syriza in it ranks. Contrary to US coverage, the coverage in European media was much more negative

© REUTERS / Francois Lenoir

Eurogroup Rules Out New Bailout Program for Greece

Sputnik: There has been a lot of anti EU rhetoric in recent years, do you think the EU needs to evolve or risk losing other member states?

Stavros D. Mavroudeas: I think the EU is a crumbling house; it is riddled with internal contradiction.

Its attempt to challenge the US supremacy has failed totally, now the danger is obvious since the EU cannot manufacture a compromise between the different and competing European elites on one hand and on the other hand the European unions’ face growing discontent.

The European is essentially anti-popular in Europe, they suppress wages, they liberalise Labour markets, they have increased misery for the popular classes.

 

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A comment in PRESS TV News on the supposed Greek exit from the troika program

Yesterday (21/8/2018) I made a short comment in PRESS TV News regarding the supposed Greek exit from the troika (IMF-EU-ECB) program.

The main points of the comment are the following.

The supposed exit from the troika program is a sham. The program is practically continuing as there are more austerity measures in the pipeline, the repayment of the troika loans will take several decades (and it is not guaranteed, hence a future default is always on the cards) and the supervision by at least the EU mechanisms (if IMF leaves the program as is expected) will also continue for many years.

The program is a failure. Its declared aim (however myopic it may be) was to make the Greek public external debt viable. It has not achieved it as the current debt/GDP ratio is higher than in the beginning of the program. Furthermore, austerity has weakened the Greek economy making its growth rospects dismal.

So the SYRIZA government’s and EU’s rejoicing about the succesful completion of the program is a sham orchestrated for cheap political and economic reasons.

The Greek people will continue to bear the burden of this anti-popular program and the policies that lay behind it for many years.

 

The video of the interview follows:

 

A debate in The Debate of Press TV on the Greek crisis, 17-6-2015

The Iranian international news service Press TV in its Debate focused on the Greek crisis. I was ivited to participate in it together with L.Padolski from Washington.

This is the video of the event:

 

A small lapsus on my behalf: at some point I erroneously said that the Greek economy has already lost 46% of its GDP (instead of 26% that is the correct number). It was an unintented verbal error.