Posts
Letter from London—the UK Referendum on EU in Perspective
By Michael White, political writer for The Guardian
In
an Athens bar the other evening, a middle aged Greek of progressive
outlook bemoaned to a London visitor the grim prospects facing his
country, with a mixture of fear and anger. Greece had tried all
permutations, governments of left, right and coalition, he protested.
But it is still mired in debt levels which are unbearable for an economy
that has lost 25% - yes, 25% - of its GDP since the financial crisis
began.What was striking to a foreign listener was not so much the detail of the man's distress, the staff job lost to insecure freelance work, the schools and health care systems which often work only with a bribe. It was the awkward realization that the tone of the Greek's complaints is echoed this spring across most of the European Union (EU) and on the U.S. presidential campaign trail. Resentful fury towards the perceived failure of political elites rages in regions and countries which have suffered nothing remotely comparable to the agony of Greece, ones that even collect their taxes (as Greece does not).
If anything symbolizes voter disaffection it is the toxic word “immigration.” Beset with the eurozone’s prolonged currency crisis, with stagnant growth and a resurgence of populist nationalism, the EU’s elite is now grappling ineffectually with an uncontrolled surge of economic migrants and refugees from disordered states, not seen since the aftermath of World War II. High fences, people smugglers, personal tragedies have long been familiar along the US-Mexican border. In Europe too, the mood is darkening despite Angela Merkel’s appeals for solidarity. What an irony that Greece, on the rack for its euro-debts, should be bearing the brunt of blame for mass migration to the north.http://www.europeaninstitute.org/index.php/278-european-affairs/ea-march-2016/2134-letter-from-london-the-uk-referendum-on-eu-in-perspective
No comments:
Post a Comment