Greece Stands on the Edge of Civil War

Greece stands on the brink. The Eurosceptics who have been derided for their dismal predictions of war and revolution in the benighted country now have somewhat reliable figures to back up their claims, courtesy of Greek news and blogging site Keep Talking Greece, which translated the figures provided by notable polling company Public Issue into English. If you're a European banker or Greek government official, you might not want to click the link.

One third of people in Greece now want a revolution, and 98% and 89%, respectively, hold the government and speculators responsible for the crisis. Almost none of them have confidence in their leader's ability to solve the financial crisis, and most of them have negative opinions of the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the big EU nations, such as Germany. And this not mere talk: Greek revolutionary groups - and there are tens of them - are already well-armed with basic weapons and bomb-making equipment, as attempts to assassinate various world leaders showed. They have also committed at least one terrorist atrocity - a bombing of a bank in which three people were killed - and have carried out a series of bomb attacks across Greece. They have also carried out gun and grenade attacks on police stations.

It's no surprise that things in Greece have got to the point where revolution is the preffered option for a higher proportion of people there than voted Labour in our general election. Take-home salaries have effectively been halved, pensions have been slashed, hundreds of thousands of people are on minimum wage, and they're the ones who actually have jobs. Taxes have risen, prices have gone up, and the electorate has effectively been disenfranchised by the IMF and EU always getting their way. The country can be stripped of its voting rights when it is expedient for the EU to do so, and is now being asked by some to hand over islands and national monuments as security on loans that it could never afford to pay back.

Barroso knows all too well the power that far-left rhetoric can have in times of financial crisis and disenfranchisement. The revolution that he was a part of, in 1974, was successful, and ended in the overthrow of a fascist dictator. So far, the EU avoids the anger of the Greek people: 60% have a favourable opinion of it, holding countries like Germany and France responsible for the bailouts. But if a Greek Revolution does materialise, it will follow the bailout money: Spain, presumably, will be next. There are already tens of thousands of people camped out in more than fifty cities, and some of them will be watching events unfold in Greece with interest.