Donner & Blitzen
…and will Greece become Sparta?
Yesterday’s events are so rich in irony that it’s hard to know where to begin.
No sooner had the Fliegende Hollande taken off for the fatherland, pour donner a nouvelle pact, than he was blitzed out of the sky. Something about stolen thunder, maybe, but our gallant Presidente was undaunted. Lightning is the passage of unstable elements to Earth, hitting the president’s plane could have been something from Wagner. Or was providence trying to tell him something?
While national stereotypes can be overdone, we fear a clash to come. Frau Merkel will begin with a firm belief in what is right, and the right method to get there, and will end with that belief. Broadcasted straw polls seem to suggest that the German populace may be of the same mind and won’t be happy until Greece leaves the EU. A dangerously Olympian view in our opinion as the problem will simply descend on the next troubled EU member. Meanwhile, the French are equally wedded to reciprocity, a vain hope unless a miracle happens. Good to hear that they have agreed to discuss the matter; the time table can be spun out until somebody has a bright idea about Greece. What a wonderful thing diplomacy is.
What manner of pact this unlikely marriage will produce remains to be seen. Hollande’s insistence on growth versus German intransigence should ensure a very long conversation.
Easier to occupy the time considering Greeece. Now we are not entirely taken in laconophilia, but fear internal resistance to any more cutbacks in Greece from the voting public, witness the current political deshabille. Greek democracy was by public outcry, that may yet come. Spartan treatment may yet have to be the way as it’s difficult to see how else they may escape. To leave the euro may be a merry game of falling dominoes as the contagion may spread to adjacent EU members.
If all else fails, Greece can celebrate 50 years of peace…