Although people argue about whether the creditor nations should take blame for the eurocrisis, and the same goes for the Greek people, everyone seems to agree that the Greek government is at fault. So I suggest that the European Parliament or Commission or some other name-mush organ over in Brussels / Strasbourg assemble a full body of administrators, and military people if need be, in time for the next Greek request for a bailout.
Here’s the deal, Syriza, PM Tsipras: we’re willing to extend loans and/or humanitarian assistance, pretty much as generously as you want to dictate to us, under the following condition:
We want you to clear out the entire parliament in Athens. We are sending our own substitute administrators to act as government for Greece, extending into any and all municipalities as we see fit, until we feel that the political culture of Greece is such that it is suitable for re-entry into the Eurozone, at which point we will elect suitable substitutes for this new temporary government.
(hence the military people)
Of course there are all kinds of arguments for why this wouldn’t work. But this is what the EU is already doing, in a half-assed way. They’re dictating terms from a distance without actually getting their hands dirty and trying to fix what they perceive to be a corrupt Greek government. By working from a distance, I think the leaders feel they are not actually responsible for what goes on in Greece, nor do they have any commitment to follow thru on possible reforms. This way, those administrators can have the opportunity to work from the ground up, so to speak, and be forced to live through whatever they devise, so they know intimately whether or not their plans are working.
How’s that for an ever closer union?