Greece got rid of its military dictators in July 1974. But almost four decades later, as the debt-stricken country endures a crisis that some might say is almost as bad as the long dark night of their rule, it is still impossible to protest in the cradle of democracy.
When tens of thousands of Greeks tried to demonstrate peacefully in front of the large sandstone parliament building on Sunday night, they were met almost immediately with volleys of teargas. The toxic fumes were the authorities' answer not only to the popular opposition unleashed by the prospect of yet more austerity but the fear that underpins it. For angst, like uncertainty, is now haunting Greece.
What followed was textbook chaos: a familiar mix of young punks with no relation to ordinary protesters going on the rampage, setting fire to banks, stores and cafes. Scenes of bedlam and mayhem that ensured the event taking place inside the Athens parliament – a ballot on deeply unpopular measures in return for the rescue funds that will keep bankruptcy at bay – was thoroughly drowned out.
Buildings burned into the early hours. By the time Athenians awoke, the historic heart of their ancient city resembled a war zone. Shops along busy boulevards lay looted, their shutters shattered and smashed. Mangled bus stops lay strewn among the detritus. The charred remains of two of the capital's oldest cinemas smouldered, and, with the stench of teargas still hanging in the air, newspapers proclaimed the vote had been passed.
"All this," said Angela Economou, a student taking in a blackened edifice that had once been a bank, "when all we had wanted to do was exercise our democratic right.
"It is not the politicians who are suffering, it's the people. And these are measures that don't only kill your creative flame, they make you despair."
As Europe's great debt drama intensifies, it is clear that in the country where it began nothing is going to plan. Teetering on the edge of economic collapse, Greece is also on the brink of becoming ungovernable; its politicians panic-stricken and discredited; its institutions barely functioning; its people ground down by waves of budget cuts.
Three years into the crisis and the crushing austerity demanded by the EU, ECB and IMF, the country's troika of creditors, is clearly having a devastating effect.
Unemployment, once among the lowest in the EU, is nudging 21%, an all-time high, industry has all but collapsed, and nationwide hundreds of small businesses, once the lifeblood of the Greek economy, are closing by the day. The desperate and poor can no longer be hidden. Begging has proliferated. So, too, have the homeless, mostly men who can no longer afford a roof over their heads who crouch in doorways or lie strewn across pavements, buried under blankets, hands outstretched. » | Helena Smith | Monday, February 13, 2012
