Greek anti-austerity protesters outside Irish government buildings. Terrible thing, this democracy. Imagine the Greek people saying no to more debt, unemployment, and flagellation,Photocall Ireland

“Officials in France and in Brussels said on Monday that they were unhappy and dumbfounded with the no vote” said a report in The New York Times.

Terrible thing, this democracy. Imagine the Greek people saying no to more debt, no to massive unemployment, no to flagellation from the rest of Europe, smarmy and finger wagging Ireland included.

Merkelism is what has made the current crisis with massive austerity, not stimulus, the only policy, even though in the case of Greece it has clearly failed. The German solution? More austerity.

But whatever is good for Germany is good for everyone else, even as countries like Ireland rush to tug the forelock and humble themselves to the Reich masters in Berlin. Madame Guillotine – Angela Merkel -- scares the bejaysus out every other European leader.

But what goes around comes around. Germany does not exactly have a sterling track record when it comes to economic management.

it was not that long ago, certainly within living memory, when Germany was Greece and Hitler was hailed as their hero when he took them out of the doldrums after the First World War.

Soon after they ruined Europe and much of the world with their mad Nazi experiment. Now they are back running Greece, or trying to.

It was the Americans and the Marshall Plan that helped the Germans to get back on their feet. Notably the Americans did not demand rapid repayment of the $120 billion in today's terms they loaned, much of it to Germany.

There is no Greek Hitler, merely a brave and different politician in the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras who bet his country would turn to their historic pride and democratic tradition to force change in what has become a secret governing structure of unelected bureaucrats who run the European Union at the behest of the Germans.

As Fintan O’Toole noted in his Irish Times column, “By rejecting an attempt to force their elected government from office, the Greeks have acted as good Europeans. They have given the European Union a chance to save itself as a democratic project. If it is not seized now, that opportunity may not come again.

“The EU faces many threats, but by far the biggest comes from within. It is from what we might call the new Illuminati, after the elite 18th century masons who imagined themselves so uniquely enlightened that only they themselves were fit to direct the destiny of the world.”

The European project has suffered from a massive deficit of democracy from its inception, with huge decisions made at the whim of one country, Germany, and usually enforced by unelected officials answerable only to themselves and a deeply ineffective European Parliament.

Like many ill-starred ventures, the idea behind European Union after two catastrophic wars was a great ideal. In practice it has become a one state monopoly with rules invented and presented by unelected agents for that state.

Thank goodness for the Greeks, who unlike the Irish stood up to this unelected behemoth doing Germany's bidding.

There may be tough times ahead, but the democratic vote of the Greek people shouting “enough” is surely a clarion call for the rest of the countries to finally demand democratic accountability and a fair and equitable resolution of the Greek crisis that does not include the bullying and hectoring policies currently in place.

Read more: The Greek’s situation goes from bad to worse