By Vasiliki Siouti
Given all that the Prime Minister has committed to in both public statements and leaks towards ‘friendly’ media outlets, the majority of the infamous primary surplus will be shared out to uniformed public workers, those on small pensions and vulnerable social groups hit by the memorandum. He has promised on multiple occasions to right the injustices caused by the Memorandum on the above groups as well as on justice officials who constitute a combination of client/voters of New Democracy, and other groups useful to the government.
But why has he decided to promise it to justice officials and not new teachers who are paid 600 euros and cannot afford to live? Why to police officers and not the unemployed or single-parent families living below the poverty line? Why to military officers and not those who leap from their balconies and roofs every day because they can’t take living day-to-day ‘for a sullied plate of food,’ as one woman wrote in the note she left yesterday after she attempted to commit suicide?
If the Prime Minister really wanted to right the wrongs of the Memorandum he should do it for all. According to what baseless logic does he decide to dole out as he sees fit whatever ‘surplus’ was created from the suffering of the Greek people? And why is he choosing these specific groups to favour – like justice workers and those in uniform – are they the most vulnerable members of society?
These are, of course, rhetorical questions as the answers are self-evident. The logic behind the redistribution of the ‘surplus’ is one of exchange and of serving the interests of the party’s client base by a political class which is at the same time claiming to be ‘reformers’ – but that, of course, is a joke.
The government knows full well which are the social classes and groups that voted for them and who went to SYRIZA. Judges, uniformed public workers, pensioners, farmers, wealthy lawyers and doctors and generally the leaders in tax avoidance make up its client-base who it looks after and maintains – either by redistributing what it obtained from others, or by turning a blind eye to tax avoidance and maintaining the privileges of certain groups. It knows that the young, the unemployed, the educated, teachers, professors and public employees didn’t vote for it and have now moved to the opposition’s camp which is why it treats them with unconcealed hostility.
The government’s stance is no surprise. It is to be expected. It does all it can to survive and cling on to power. That which is surprising is the tolerance of the populace as it watches the Prime Minister announce how he will share among his party’s base that which he took from everyone and in doing so brought them to their knees. Because of course everyone knows that it is not a surplus of a thriving society. The real surplus of this government is a surplus of audacity.