"Just under 15% of Germany's total arms exports are made to Greece, its biggest market in Europe" Papadimoulis said, "Greece has paid over 2bn ( 1.6bn) for submarines that proved to be faulty and which it doesn't even need. It owes another 1bn as part of the deal. That's three times the amount Athens was asked to make in additional pension cuts to secure its latest EU aid package." According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri), France is not far behind. Some 10% of its total arms sales go to Greece, which is a member of NATO. From 2002 to 2006, Greece was the world's fourth biggest importer of conventional weapons. It is now the 10th. "If there is one country that has benefited from the huge amounts Greece spends on defence it is Germany," said Papadimoulis. [iv]
These military expenditures from Greece to Germany and France were funded by German and French commercial banks. That is why, when the scale of Greece's high levels of indebtedness became apparent the Europeans embarked on a 'bailout' program to assist Greece by using the funds generated by the bailout program to pay off the commercial debts owed by Greece to the French and German commercial banks. That turned the commercial debt into a debt of the European citizens, not the banks.
The burden of these debts are those which haunt the current negotiations. The rest of Europe and the IMF is now paying for the German and French military exports to Greece which have been shifted from the commercial banks to the ECB and analogous institutions. The complicity of the corrupt Greek politicians was instrumental in allowing this to happen which is why PASOK and New Democracy were turfed out of office and Syriza installed in their place. It is a great mistake to view the situation in which Greeks find themselves by examining the elites. The Eurotrash elites of Europe, including the Eurotrash Greek elites, ae not the measure of their countries. They despise democracy and accountability. They live in fear that their greed and lies will be understood by the European populations and that they, too, will be turfed out of office like their Greek counterparts.
The working people in Greece have always known who their enemies were and the Greek unions have raised these issues on many occasions. Now, with a government which might act in redress of their grievances they were willing to cast their "Oxi" vote for a chance to put things right.
It ill behooves the pompous pretenders of Germany and France to pontificate about the feckless behaviour of the Greeks when they are the authors of the plight of the Greek economy. What Syriza should insist upon before and during the negotiations with the Eurocrats this Sunday is not only a "haircut" on the Greek debt but also an enema for the European Union to stop the further spread of self-serving bullshit to the world.
[i] Christopher Rhoads, "The Submarine Deals That Helped Sink Greece", Wall Street Journal 10 July 2010
[ii] ibid
[iii] Helena Smith, "German 'hypocrisy' over Greek military spending has critics up in arms" Guardian 19/4/12
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