Katoikos: Europe’s identity problem: Tsipras, Greece and the undesired agreement

By 2015, the combination of various pernicious events made evident the structural shortcomings of the EU and prompted debate. Disputes such as those on the acceptance of refugees or Greek debt restructuring soon took on a clear moral character. But moralities across Europe are different – see, among others, the different trends of secularisation and the cultural gap between member states – and this constitutes a major problem in European relations, impairing decision-making.

The first Tsipras government rose to power in January 2015, backed by the Greek masses. Since then, it has concentrated its greatest efforts on the purpose it was elected for: negotiating more bearable conditions for public debt reduction. As early as its first public addresses and statements on the negotiations, the government tied its policy proposals to Greek national identity and pride.

Studies, such as Koumandaraki A.’s The Evolution of Greek National Identity, have recognised that Greek identity is very much reliant on ancient Greek achievements: philosophy, democracy, theatre, the arts. These components have a special significance in Greece (e.g. the invention of democracy and the special charge of the Greek roots of the word ‘democracy’) and foment a singular national pride for their history and culture that is unique in the EU. The cultural homogeneity of a country relatively untouched by stabilised mass immigration contributes to making Greek values quite uniform and, therefore, the Greek people particularly sensitive to appeals to their strong identity.

Prime Minister Tsipras often made clear that Greek pride and values, which he claimed to be the founding values of the EU, were at stake. The combination of cultural authority and economic expertise constituted the government’s strategy: Tsipras tried to compensate for the weak position of Greece and gain his country leverage by placing it in a position of primacy at the cultural-foundational level of the European Union. Take, for example, the victory speech of 25 January 2015 in Syntagma Square in Athens, and the peroration before the European Parliament of 8 July 2015.

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