



After the results in the first round of the French presidential election, the Greek PM, Alexis Tsipras, was among those who rushed to congratulate Emmanuel Macron. We don't know if Tsipras truly believes that Macron will help Greece in case he wins the election in the final round against Marine Le Pen.





If he does, that means he still lives with the complete illusion that something could change in favor of Greece. We have to remind Mr. Tsipras that Macron, as member of the Socialist Party from 2006 to 2009, was appointed deputy secretary-general under François Hollande's first government in 2012, and Minister of Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs in 2014 under the Second Valls Government.





So, we have to remind Mr. Tsipras what François Hollande did to help Greece escape from the path of the neoliberal catastrophe imposed by the Troika (IMF, ECB, European Commission) creditors: absolutely nothing.





All he did was to run behind the decisions of the Brussels-Berlin axis and the IMF mafia. We shouldn't expect anything different from Hollande with people like Macron in his government.





Macron is certainly the 'darling' of the ruthless neoliberal establishment. With the banker in charge for the next years, the European Financial Dictatorship will have all the time to finish the brutal experiment in Greece. The Brussels bureaufascists and the Berlin sado-monetarists will be celebrating right now.









... it’s obvious the IMF are not done with Greece yet. And neither are the rest of the Troika. They are still demanding measures that are dead certain to plunge the Greeks much further into their abyss in the future. As my friend Steve Keen put it to me recently: “Dreadful. It will become Europe’s Somalia.”





An excellent example of this is the Greek primary budget surplus. The Troika has been demanding that it reach 3.5% of GDP for the next number of years (the number changes all the time, 3, 5, 10?). Which is the worst thing it could do, at least for the Greek people and the Greek economy. Not for those who seek to buy Greek assets on the cheap.





But sure enough, the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) jubilantly announced on Friday that the 2016 primary surplus was 4.19% (8 times more than the 0.5% expected). This is bad news for Greeks, though they don’t know it. It is also a condition for receiving the next phase of the current bailout. Here’s what that comes down to: in order to save itself from default/bankruptcy, the country is required to destroy its economy.





And that’s not all: the surplus is a requirement to get a next bailout tranche, and debt relief, but as a reward for achieving that surplus, Greece can now expect to get less … debt relief. Because obviously they’re doing great, right?! They managed to squeeze another €7.3 billion out of their poor. So they should always be able to do that in every subsequent year.





The government in Athens sees the surplus as a ‘weapon’ that can be used in the never-ending bailout negotiations, but the Troika will simply move the goalposts again; that’s its MO.





So, we don't have to be prophets to guess what the neoliberal puppet, Emmanuel Macron, will say about Greece. He will say something like 'Greece has done much, but there is still much work to be done', as the whole neoliberal priesthood repeats for Greece during the last seven years of uninterrupted destruction.





We don't know what Marine Le Pen will say about Greece in case she gets elected, but we honestly don't expect to see much difference, as she is simply the reserve of the establishment.





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