– Few things can epitomise the plight that Greece is in, at the moment than the image of the Acropolis covered in snow. The photo circulated in most media around the world as an example of eery beauty, but it is hard to overlook the semantics. The symbol of the Athenian democracy, buried in snow, in a ‘Games-of-Throne’-like turn of events offers a commentary on the state of the country and its democracy.
– Another haunting image, also related to the current weather conditions in the country, made sure that 2017 set off on the wrong foot in Greece; it is the image of the refugee camps, also deep in snow, their inhabitants dealing with the extreme cold in tents that are obviously unable to keep them warm and safe.
– Immigration Minister, Yannis Mouzalas, tried to put the blame on the array of Non-Government Organisations that are operating in the refugee entry points, stating that the Government managed to effectively address 70 per cent of the needs, with much less resources than the NGOs have received and asked the European Commissioner of Immigration, Dimitris Avramopoulos to further investigate the way that NGOs use their funding.
– Other parts of the Greek population are struggling with extreme weather conditions, not least among them the farmers and Livestock breeders, who are about to hold the quasi-regular annual demonstrations at the Thessaly lowlands. Their union leadership has called for the blockage of the National Road with tractors to begin on Monday 23 January, but not many are willing to do so, facing the cold and adverse weather. The Greek government is trying to take advantage of this temporary setback, announcing a potential repeal of the property tax on livestock breeding premises, as well as the consumer tax on wine. This might prove to be too little, too late. The farmers have not much to lose, at this stage, and they are spurred by the support of the Nazi Golden Dawn party, which is making much noise recently.
– On Tuesday, a group of Golden Dawn members, led by the Nazi party MP, Giannis Lagos (who is already facing criminal charges for other incidents of violence) held a ‘parent’ demonstration outside of the Neo Ikonio Primary School in Perama, assaulting parents and teachers, in an effort to prevent refugee and migrant children from attending classes. Once again, humanity, education and the Greek ideal of philoxeny became the victim in the hands of thugs pretending to protect the country’s purity. God forbid if one of them actually excels in academics or sport and end up becoming the next Giannis Antetokounmpo.
– This was a violent contribution to an ongoing debate on what constitutes being Greek. Of course, the ancient Greek rhetorician Isocrates had ended this debate centuries ago, proclaiming “the title of Hellene a badge of education rather than of common descent”.
– Isocrates and the other ancient Greek thinkers and orators are absent of the public discourse in Greece, at the moment, most notably so in the place where their legacy is more needed; in the Greek parliament, which is forever overrun by noise and accusations. This time, the debate was on whether the country will be able to complete the bailout review that will allow it to head back to the markets by the end of 2018, as PM Alexis Tsipras affirmed, echoing his predecessor’s similar promise a few years ago. The PM then went on accusing the opposition leader, Kiriakos Mitsotakis, stating that his plan, if he comes to power, is to further slash wages and pensions, sell out assets and impose austerity measures and neo-liberal policies to an already struggling and frail population, completely dismantling any fragment of the welfare state still standing.
– Outside the parliament, the government engaged in another heated debate, this time with the International Monetary Fund’s representative, Poul Thomsen, who suggesting that it would take Greece 21 years to return unemployment to pre-crisis levels. Dismissing his comment as another example of IMF’s wrong predictions, the government continued campaigning for the exclusion of the IMF from the next phase of the bailout plan, something to which the creditors (led by Germany) are openly opposed.
– The major political parties can debate on the presence of IMF issue, but they have both failed to come up with a plan to face unemployment. The only segment good news on that sector came when the bailout plan for the supermarket chain Marinopoulos was announced, securing the jobs of the failed company’s employees. Other than that, the plan includes a 50 percent private debt relief and a 250 instalments plan for the company’s debt to the state.
– The government had little to do with bailing out the supermarket chain. On the contrary, it seems that it has a lot to do with the salvation of one of the leading media companies, DOL. Facing bankruptcy, the publishing house (which prints the iconic centre-left daily ‘TA NEA’ and the Sunday centre-right ‘TO VIMA’) was about to close, when its head, Stavros Psicharis, appointed as CEO one of the company’s former editorial director, who in turn became a Syriza MP, Vassilis Moulopoulos. The veteran journalist is supposed to lead the company through hard times and try to secure its finances, but the move was seen as a government plan to take control of two dissenting newspapers.
– So yes, the Greek ‘leftist’ government has so far failed to do pursue any leftist policy, continuing on privatisations and other neo-liberal reforms, but it is now appointing directors to news companies. It doesn’t make much sense, but then, not much Greek news do.