Alexis Tsipras. Flickr. Some rights reserved.
The European political and economic landscape reveals an apparent paradox: despite the increasing depth of the crisis that began in 2008, the neoliberal agenda continues to exert its hegemony in public debate and to determine the decisions of those responsible for economic policies. Some recent events show the increasing intensity of this phenomenon.
An example of this is the aggressive attitude shown by all the European countries (and even more so the peripheral countries) towards Greece. Not only have they harshly rejected all Greek proposals, including the more conciliatory ones in partial favour of an adjustment, but on several occasions they have even felt entitled to ridicule the economic theory behind them. On April 24 the Eurogroup finance ministers publicly humiliated the Greek finance minister and renowned unorthodox economist Yanis Varoufakis. According to the Bloomberg agency, the Dutch Eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem attacked Varoufakis calling him "a lazy dilettante and gambler" and tried to impose on Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras the need to add two additional members to the Greek delegation who would act as the minister’s "tutors". Such is the attitude that has characterized European institutions throughout the complex negotiations on Greek debt.
