Let Greece leave the Euro

Stuff reports:

Filippos Nikolopoulos, a sociology professor at Crete University and SYRIZA supporter, said that Tsipras’s fans were jubilant because they had won new force and authority by increasing their share of the vote so much on Sunday.

“We want Europe, we want to cooperate,” he said. “But we do not want to be subjugated by (German Chancellor) Mrs Merkel.”

Stathis Stavropoulos, a newspaper cartoonist famous for his drawings depicting German officials preaching austerity at Greece as Nazi taskmasters, said the new conservative government would have the people of Greece against it from the outset.

“Our dream of European union was very different,” he told Reuters. “It was a union of countries and peoples, not a union to serve banks and not a Fourth German Reich.”

Using the term for a Nazi regional leader under Hitler’s Reich, Stavropoulos added: “Our country is under occupation. How would you feel if they sent a Gauleiter to run your country and tell you what to do ?”

The cartoonist said he had nothing against the German people or other European nations. Indeed, he had never visited Berlin, Paris or London – but was familiar with Moscow, Beijing and Nicaragua from his Communist activities.

“The Soviet Union may have ended but not the dream of democratic communism,” he sighed wistfully.

I detest this blaming of Germany, when in fact the poor German taxpayer has thrown billions of Euros at helping keep Greece solvent.

It is becoming clear the Euro is a flawed concept. For a common currency to work, you need a common economy. I think a number of countries should and will leave the Euro. This will allow their new currency to be set at a level which makes their economy competitive again.