If I come across the expression, “crucial next 48 hours,” again I think I am going to have a nervous breakdown. Our political leaders are bent on rattling our nerves in order to derive petty political gains, elbowing each other to claim that they have managed to wrest yet one more concession from the claws of the rapacious troika. As if anyone believes them any more…

By Nikos Chrysoloras

Their squabbles really have no relation to the tough negotiations for the protection of the country. They are only for votes. If they really cared for the country so much they would not have raised funding for their parties from the State budget in the midst of this deep crisis; they would not maintain the entire armies of officials who are paid from our empty pockets, as well as from loans from State-controlled banks when the real economy is choked from the lack of liquidity; and they would not have gone for a bill providing for State guarantees for party debts which they will never pay.

Now I am convinced: they don’t care about the country. Greece remains in the developed world and the eurozone thanks to the sacrifices of its citizens (not all of them, to be sure), who are being asked to shoulder their own sins, those of their fellow citizens and the solidarity of our European partners. Greece remains in the euro not thanks to the efforts of political leaders but despite them. They do not understand even the basic principle of economics: that uncertainty has much graver repercussions on economic activity than austerity. And that no one will invest, buy or create jobs as long as this uncertainty for tomorrow prevails. Literally for tomorrow, to be sure, for we don’t know what other patriotic claim they will make in the “crucial next 48 hours”.