The extensive coverage on the TV media, carrying interviews with the Greek people, the orderly queues at the ATM machines, the fighting spirit of the downtrodden citizens with their naïve Oxi vote, has reached into the hearts of many of its neighbours, who know that it could just as easily have been them dropping hopelessly broken to the floor, having failed again to retrieve their pension. 

Throughout the past five years of hard and incisive austerity, the people have done all they could to maintain their dignity, hiding their poverty and the real extent of the consequences that they faced on a daily basis.  Maybe it is this pride which has kept them from the noise and babble of other countries that also had to be bailed out, such as Portugal and Spain, and consequently their demands appeared to be capricious.

Europe, and in particular Germany, judged them harshly, due also to the choice made by the people in electing a Marxist government led by populist ideas and risky games.  This hardly was the time to revolutionise the European model.  If it was, then they should have tried to do it on their own turf, with their own money.  Certainly, they cannot expect to gamble on a new political theory on the backs of ordinary taxpayers who do not have the resources to maintain themselves at times.  The spirit was willing but the body was not. 

It would be best now if they take that experience and focus on turning things around for the country.  It will be even harder to do now, having run for so long on empty, but then the Greeks are known for running a marathon.  Every family has its divergent, its oddball. Greece is the anti-establishment child of the European Union.  Sadly, for them and for us, we have seen them come face to face with reality and it was tough to see.  But their courage and unfailing spirit has touched many hearts and it is clear that they won the war of the hearts whilst Germany and Europe look bruised and old. 

The same cannot really be said of their leader, Alexis Tsipras, who deceived the people with his populist platform and was the most Peter Pan of them all.   What day was it when he woke up and thought that he could walk up and part the sea?  Even Moses saw that it would take 40 years of living in tents and eating manna. 

Other populist parties, like Cinque Stelle in Italy, rushed to Athens on the eve of the referendum, to share in the historic moment when they would see the Euro crushed and the blue and white flag of Greece planted into the Acropolis for the world to see.  But even Beppe Grillo did not read the mind of the Greeks, who voted to stay in the Euro and Europe. 

The sad thing is that the world order does not offer a compassionate and tolerant model, appreciative of all the qualities that go to make the world a decent place to live in.  Look at Syria.  Children are refugees, they are homeless, they are starving, they are alone and frightened.  And yet, they are not welcome in Europe, to be given a temporary shelter and food.  And when they desperately board a crowded boat, they might make it to Greece.  But Greece is not really Europe anymore, in the sense that we know it.  And that is its pride and its failure.  But it is also the cornerstone and one day it will hold the structure together, when countries are forced to give up some of their security in order to save another. 

Now they must make huge sacrifices.  Hopefully, the sympathy that the people of Greece have won along the way, will serve to keep their tourism industry in good health, although prices will have to increase due to the increase in VAT.  The special fund that has been created, where national assets will be placed for sale, is quite the white elephant, and more of a way of saving face for Europe rather than a viable means of raising cash.  Maybe Malta should use some of the funds from selling European passports towards the money we will need to fork out for the third bailout.  After all, who would want those passports if were not for Europe? 

Many, too, here in Malta believed in the populist ideas of the Labour Movement.  Today, everything is being done to try to realise the new power station, when it is clear that this idea has failed, along with all the other claims of meritocracy, accountability and transparency.  For many Maltese voters too, it is tough to admit that they chose a populist image which did not deliver and is quite unlikely to.  “Drittghalgolhajt” (straight into the wall), was taken to mean financial ruin.  What was properly forecasted was that that path would lead to nowhere.  It did not have realistic and meaningful proposals, it misled people into thinking that they can just take and take and not have to produce anything to sustain it and it projected  that harmful decisions would not be reversible.  The complete plunder of the environment will lead to the ruin of Malta.  The Greeks have land and image to sell – land they wish to keep intact.  Whether or not they manage to find buyers is another thing.  We, in Malta, will only have concrete and ugliness and a reputation in tatters.  Even Greece will see how we tried to profit off them in selling passports, whilst refusing to write off any of their debt.  As we turn to China and Azerbaijan and turn our back on Europe, at least the Greeks kept steadfast in wanting to keep their place in the EU, even when led by a Marxist.

This terrible ordeal can lead to a renewal of Greece and a transformation.  Letting go of the past and doing all it takes to survive is the only option. Whether Tsipras and Syriza are the ones to do it remains to be seen but we already know that there is revolt amongst the party’s own members and that the vote for the bailout package will be carried on the votes of the opposition party of the right. 

The EU is also changed from this experience – maybe not just yet – but it cannot afford to ignore the sentiments and attitude of the individual states that are part of the union.  Values need to be assessed and the people need to be put at the centre of new policies whilst the states require room to grow and to have more of a voice.  The EU is more than just coal and the single market but it is less than the will of the people and it should cherish that.

So, Tsatsiki it is.Anyway, Anthony Quinn’s Zorba the Greek remains a classic.