from
Greek Left Review
Caminante, no hay camino,
se hace el camino al andar.
Antonio Machado
Capitalizing on a historical momentum, we shall not revert to pessimism but realize that a historical process has begun. A process rooted in what appears to be a geographically localized transgression of the memoranda within Greece; but which is also a spring flowing against the tide of austerity measures in Europe at large. Greece has been contained within two clichés and has transgressed both. On the one hand, it has proven that it can be much more than the idealized, mythical image of the cradle of democracy, by pointing towards a prolonged future that flies in the face of the dictates of the market, as prescribed by the domestic and international troikas, pointing to the emergence of new political subjectivities.
On the other hand, Greece, was turned to the guinea pig of the austerity measures that cut across countries. In that respect, the greek electoral results, in the midst of the fiercest propaganda, are the springs of a river that flows across Europe – it remains to be seen where it would lead. The experiment has ethically failed: the guinea PIIGS have cast an anti-austerity vote, condemning the epitome of neoliberalism, represented in Greece in the form of the memoranda and widely in Europe in terms of austerity policies increasingly . This momentum is emboldened by the worrisome rearing of the nest of neo-fascism and populism within Greece. This reactionary element, incorporating the neoliberal agenda, cuts across the Right, as New Democracy, gaining currency on fear-mongering, both domestically and from institutional mechanisms of the EU as well as global institutions. It has accommodated chauvinistic, populist, and jingoist discourses in what is presented as a ‘solution-providing’ government-to-be.