The Greeks have voted NO. To be honest, I did not expect this.
Somebody asked me today, “what do you think this means for Greece?” I would like to rephrase this question: “what does this mean for Europe?”

Go and vote again, will ye?

Over the years, when the Irish voted “against Europe” (in form of Nice and Lisbon) the EU made the Irish vote again. At the time the EU spelled out all kind of consequences the Irish would face unless they voted for the relevant treaties. Out of fear, the Irish did what they were told. None of the revised Irish decisions were the right ones. Nice lead to an EU expansion to the East, with jobs to move into the Eastern low wage countries and the West was flooded with cheap products from the new eastern European countries.

Will the EU do the same to the Greek? Hold the Greek people at random and get them to vote again? Or will the EU honour their father’s idea of democracy?

The European Family

Whenever the Irish voted “against the interest” of the EU, German politicians liked to point out that the EU is like a big family. A family which cares for the smaller members. One thing the Germans never really explained was, if there’s such a thing as a family, who are the parents? As far as the Germans are concerned, all member states of the EU should be equal. So, just for the reason of being a small member state, Ireland shouldn’t be treated like a child.

Greece is a naughty child

As far as Greece is concerned, we as a “European family” have to wake up and smell the coffee. It is about time that the different EU member states stop bullying each other. The bullying methods are not one sided. The Greek tried to bully the EU, the EU tried to bully the Greek. Let’s jump across shadows and put pride aside and let’s treat each other with respect and let’s treat each other like family members.

Family member with problems

Come on, when we have a member in our family who experiences problems, we try to help and find a way out and not punish the family member. And yes, some family members can be a bit of a challenge over the years, but we still don’t drop them, but help in any possible way to get over those problems. So, if the big countries of the EU do see the EU as a family, it is about time that they start acting on that. Not like parents, because they’re not, but as responsible family members.