Guardian
August 2, 2011
Themis Protopsaltou shifted packing boxes across the front room of his parents' flat in Veria, an agricultural town in northern Greece. Aged 31, and married with a two-year-old son, he was reluctantly having to go the way of many crisis-hit Greeks: move back in with mum and dad.
"I've got no choice," he shrugged. "I'm young, I've taken every kind of labour possible since losing my job. But I can't support a family on the occasional pay-cheque of €30 a day. I'm not ashamed. It's not ordinary workers like me who have caused this crisis."
Protopsaltou, who trained in mechanical engineering, once did skilled work in construction, including building work for Lidl supermarkets. Now he sits by the phone waiting for random shift work sorting peaches for a local farm co-operative for €29.45 a day. His wife, who trained in chemical engineering, was so desperate she took a job gutting fish in a market from 6am until 11pm. But even that dried up. Their rent of €250 a month for a cramped apartment had become too much, and they couldn't afford their own place. So Themis's parents – who are in their 60s – agreed to move into a tiny abandoned shop adjoining their flat - after all, empty shops are now two-a-penny in Greece - while Themis renovated their flat for himself, his wife and son. This way, at least there is semblance of privacy. Other families were faced with moving back in with pensioner parents and great-grandparents living in tiny spaces, sometimes a family of five squeezed into one room.
"In Greece the family is everything, thank God, because right now it's all there is," said Themis's wife Maria, lighting a cigarette that she said she could hardly afford but helped her deal with the stress. "The family is the only thing that gives us faith. The government knows families will help each other: in a sense politicians are leaving it up to ageing parents to rescue the younger generations."
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