Greece in crisis

Kerem Öktem

This week’s seminar came in two instalments: It began with a roundtable meeting with Dimitris Sotiropoulos, Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration of the University of Athens, on the crisis in Greece. A couple of hours later, it was complemented by the seminar with the same speaker and Dimitrios Gkintidis, this time on the social dimensions of the crisis in Southeast Europe. Both events were intellectually truly stimulating, despite the rather sombre topic.

Prof. Sotiropoulos painted what can only be called a disheartening image of the social and political impacts of the crisis in Greece, which has witnessed negative GDP growth since 2008 and a rise in relative poverty to above 25 per cent. Unemployment has risen from around 8 per cent in 2008 to a staggering 26 per cent today, with more than 55 per cent of young people out of work. For those with jobs, real wages have contracted considerably. A university professor, for instance, earns around 40 per cent less than in 2010. There is little doubt that the lack of perspective and hope for self-realization especially among young people comes with a number of social consequences, most of them less than desirable. They range from emigration particularly of the more educated strata to widespread political apathy, radicalisation and xenophobia.

Both apathy and radicalisation are certainly present in Greece’s politics today: The rapid growth of the neo-fascist and anti-immigrant Golden Dawn (Chrysi Avgi) from a non-descript movement on the outer fringes to a party represented in parliament (and now receiving up to 12 per cent of the vote in surveys) is a direct consequence of the crisis and the deterioration of the country’s socio-economic environment. Though to a lesser extent, the same could be said for the left-wing coalition SYRIZA, which is the second largest party in the parliament, yet seems to be failing, when it comes to constructive opposition politics. Despite the fact that the country’s mainstream political parties on the left and right (the pan-Hellenic Socialist PASOK and the conservative Nea Dimokratia) have lost much of their credibility and legitimacy, however, Prof. Sotiropoulos was ready to allow for a modicum of optimism: “Despite the shake up of the political sphere, the party system is in place and so are the legal institutions of the country. There is reason to believe that Greece will survive the crisis. Despite the rise of Golden Dawn, the people on the street are unlikely to bend that far to the right”.

Another reason not to despair is the current coalition government’s relative success in implementing structural reform and tackling the budget deficit. In terms of macro-economic strategy, Sotiropoulos suggested, a lot of the Troika-mandated requests are being met. Whether the government or its successor will be able to bring about a shift in terms of employment and growth, however, is all but certain. Greece will survive and the European Union will help. But it would not be exaggerated to expect that in five years from now the country will be very different from the one we used to know.