Whether the Syriza-led government of Greece survives its own domestic democratic pressures remains to be seen following the deal struck at the Eurozone summit yesterday – in the end the 28 EU leaders didn’t have to meet… The Guardian live-blog on the Greek crisis notes one possible scenario
Analysts at Eurasia Group suspect Greece could soon head towards a national unity government, if many government MPs refuse to back the bailout deal on Wednesday night.
If Tsipras loses his majority and potentially even more support than he did on Saturday, it makes no sense for him to try and reshuffle the government.
In this case, he will instead likely choose to offer his and the support of the remaining Syriza MP’s towards a special purpose national unity government, but one which he will not head.
And that administration would sign off on a third bailout, overseeing some initial implementation, and then probably disband for elections in a few months’ time, “probably by autumn but certainly before December”.
At which point the ‘deal’ will have been done. If not, Grexit.
In the meantime, the same live-blog helpfully relates how the hashtag #ThisIsACoup went viral – which may, or may not, have contributed to the misunderstanding of some… From the Guardian live-blog on the Greek crisis
The call went out on Sunday afternoon. “Hi guys, this is an important message about Greece,” wrote an activist named Francesca in a text message to 40 people, including members of Spain’s Indignado movement and leftist coalition party Barcelona en Comú.
She continued:
“These guys meeting now in the Eurogroup, they all have twitter handles, they deserve to be told by the world to do a deal with Tsipras and stop trying to overthrow him,”
Minutes later, the hashtag #ThisIsACoup was born in Barcelona. It quickly shot to the top of trending lists around the world, including Germany and Greece, sparking a social media backlash against Germany and its finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, over the draconian list of demands being forced on the Greek government in return for a third bailout.
The hashtag was first attributed to a physics teacher in Barcelona, who clarified on Monday that it was a collective campaign.
Shortly after, those behind the campaign published a declaration, explaining their motivations. “#ThisIsACoup may have started in Barcelona, but it resonated around the world because it expressed a common sense of impotence of citizens in the face of globalised financial powers,” they wrote.
“We decided to support Francesca’s call to launch an online campaign to support the democratic will of the Greek people in the face of extortion by the EuroGroup in its negotiations with Syriza,” the statement continued.
“The scandalous Eurogroup proposals yesterday made last night the ideal moment to create a hashtag to express and, above all, coordinate, our outrage at the extortion the Greek government and its people were being subject to.”
The hashtag was a nod to the Egyptian hashtag #NotACoup, that trended in 2013.
“We’ve learned how to mobilise online from our counterparts of the Arab Spring and from our own experiences of occupying the squares of Spain.”
But, as regular Slugger readers will be aware, “…complex issues cannot always be addressed via online petitions.”
[As any fule kno… – Ed]
