Escape from reality
There is confusion regarding the state’s rescue plan – to the tune of 28 billion euros – for the Greek banking sector. First of all, there is some conflict between what the economy minister announced and what the draft law stipulates. Secondly, no one knows when it will be enacted by Parliament or when it will go into effect. Instead of helping to defuse the crisis, the government’s rescue package has fueled uncertainty. The state is giving banks the kind of support they would need if they were at risk of bankruptcy and it is doing so without providing assurances about the effect the plan would have on the real economy or how it would protect society in the case of a recession. The plan is simply pumping out «cheap» money as though this will not come from public coffers, as though this is not the product of all of society’s efforts. What the government’s proposal shows is that it is taking care to protect banks rather than the market, yet the government’s mission is to protect the market as a whole as well as the citizens, not to spend public money in order to cover up the mistakes of banks and other credit institutions. The government was elected in order to protect the citizens, not banks. In the midst of the turmoil that has beset it, the government has shown itself unable to understand the international situation or prioritize the needs of the real economy and of society. It appears to have jumped ship. The government has lost touch with reality, or, rather, has tries to escape from reality: This was apparent in the speech to Parliament by outgoing Minister of State Theodoros Roussopoulos and by the fact that, in times of global financial crisis, the government is bending under internal, structural weaknesses.
