Greece is about to become the blueprint for modern feudalism

globinfo freexchange

After almost ten years of an unprecedented crisis, Greece has been trapped into an ongoing, slow motion recession. The economy still struggling hard to recover, with unemployment and national debt being permanently in a red alarm mode.

As has been already pointed out, the result of the recent Greek national elections could be characterized "paradoxical" mainly for two reasons: 

First, the voters gave a clear governmental order to one of the traditional powers of the old political system, which are highly responsible for the Greek crisis that erupted in 2010. Several top names of the new government, and even New Democracy leader, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, have been accused of being involved in various corruption scandals, in the not so distant past.

Second, the fact that the voters elected perhaps the most fanatically neoliberal government ever. This means that Mitsotakis administration is expected to implement the brutal neoliberal policies imposed by Greece's creditors to the letter. Recall that those policies deepened the recession and made things worse for the economy.

Furthermore, the result is about to give the opportunity to the neoliberal regime to extend the Greek experiment, in order to test some new conditions. These are primarily related to the so-called Special Economic Zones (SEZs), and the Brussels-Berlin axis has now the opportunity to test them for the first time in a country which belongs to the economic hard core of the EU (eurozone). Indeed, the German government is pushing for the creation of SEZs in Greece and other European countries with struggling economies.

SEZs have been implemented in developing countries, or former colonies of the third world. But now, as Greece has been transformed into a debt colony, it will be a great opportunity for the neoliberal regime to test SEZs in an allegedly developed country. And this would be much easier under current administration, which is fanatically devoted to the neoliberal doctrine.

The plan is expected to be announced officially in early 2020, through the so-called "investment plan" between Germany and Greece, which has been already revealed by the Greek PM, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, during his latest visit to Berlin.



Some of the most typical characteristics of such a SEZ would be:

- Separate management or administration by the "investors" in the specific area.

- Special tax regime for the benefit of the "investors".

- Special labor conditions for the benefit of the "investors".

- Policing by private security companies.

We can easily understand that these characteristics resemble modern feuds.

Naturally, the areas with the highest unemployment will be the most promising candidates for the implementation of this modern feudalism. It would be easy because the neoliberal conservatives have also prevailed in the last local elections, in the majority of Greek municipalities and regions. It will be easy for the local elected mayors and administrators to set up the modern feuds in the name of fighting unemployment.

Inside these modern feuds, European legislation concerning labor rights will be powerless. Besides, it has already become extremely flexible after the economic crisis. The feudals-investors will be able to implement slavery conditions without facing any consequences. They will also be able to bypass environmental legislation in order to set up and operate their investments. In essence, this means uncontrolled deterioration of the natural environment and therefore, devastating consequences for the future of local communities.

Neoliberal regime is about to return Greece back to the Middle Ages as the country will become the blueprint for modern feudalism.