June 9, 2011
Stroll through Athens of an evening and the signs of economic distress are obvious. Shops are shut. Even cheap restaurants are half-empty. But Syntagma Square—the focal point for social gatherings, concerts, rallies and riots—is full throughout the night, not with revellers but with protesters denouncing the government’s austerity and the ills of capitalism.
These days the liveried doormen in Athens’s finest hotels stare out at sleeveless drummers in a protest tent camp inspired by Spain’s indignados. Young Greeks talk of sweeping away the kleftes (thieves) in the parliament building above, of their anger with the European Union and the IMF or, more darkly, of revolutionary violence. The prime minister, George Papandreou, has mused about reviving the debating spirit of the ancient agora, but he never imagined such a revolt. One banner demands “George go home” (a reference to his birthplace in America).
Greece is teetering on the edge. It is bankrupt. Worse, the austerity measures and reforms that Mr Papandreou has pushed through are not visibly making anything better. The markets are growing more alarmed about the risk of Greece defaulting on its mountainous debt. For the second time in a year, Mr Papandreou is having to beg European leaders for billions of euros in emergency loans. In return he promises even more belt-tightening, structural reform and the breakneck privatisation of state-owned firms and land. All this is causing fury among both creditors in Europe and party loyalists at home.
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