Two cheers for Papandreou

I personally am quite happy the Prime Minister George Papandreou has halted this Greek tragedy unfolding in Europe and decided to put the draconian austerity program for his country's "rescue" to a referendum. Greece, after all, is the birthplace of democracy and the political elites in Europe have wreaked enough harm on their voters without making themselves accountable.

Only two cheers because he should have stood up to the bullies from Germany, France and elsewhere much sooner. There is no reason that the Greek public should have to pay for Germany's prosperity, but that is the result of 10 years of the euro, foisted on Europeans by the French and the Germans.

I happened to be in Athens the day Papandreou's father, Andreas, won his election to become prime minister in 1981, forming the first left-of-center government in Greece in half a century. The celebration in Syntagma Square was heady, much like the dancing in the streets that greeted Mitterrand's election earlier that year. If the Greek Socialist Party can't stand up to the bankers, who can?

The Greeks only sin was to claim their European heritage as part of the euro zone. The Germans have been the beneficiaries of that scheme to lock the slower-growing countries of southern Europe into a currency union with Germany and ensure that German exports would not become too expensive. It was clear the Greeks could not keep up and piled up the debt to counter the surpluses accruing to Germany. And yet now the Germans, smug and self-righteous, blame the Greeks for being lazy, selfish and living beyond their means.

Let Greece leave the euro zone, regain its own currency and devalue as often as necessary. That would be a truly market-driven austerity, and not this dictatorship of the banks. The problem, of course, is that the euro cannot survive the departure of Greece, for Italy and probably Spain would quickly become untenable as well.

Papandreou has simply brought matters to a head more quickly. The Greek electorate could never have submitted to the austerity exacted by the Germans, and there's no reason they should have to. Let the Germans figure out what to do with their banks. They have money enough.