The Catastrophic Greek Crisis Manos Matsaganis

“The failure of public institutions to rise to the occasion by preventing the economic crisis from mutating into social disaster has bred disillusionment with par- liamentary democracy and brought the far right and extreme left into the political mainstream.” The Catastrophic Greek Crisis MANOS MATSAGANIS reece holds the rotating presidency of the (albeit usually have-been) politicians and busi- European Union for the first half of 2014. nessmen has become more common. Vasilis GAs some commentators in Germany and Papageorgopoulos, the conservative former elsewhere have been quick to note, there is mayor of Thessaloniki (Greece’s second largest surely something incongruous, if not outright city), in February 2013 was given a life sentence absurd, in the spectacle of the most wayward for embezzlement—he is expected to serve at member of Europe’s family of nations setting the least 15 years in prison. agenda (or pretending to), even for such a short Akis Tsochatzopoulos, the once-powerful min- time. For Greece is still in the throes of a terrible ister of defense and the second-ranking figure crisis. The experience of economic failure, near- in the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) bankruptcy, deep and protracted recession, a during the long reign of its founder Andreas sudden fall in living standards, and bitter politi- Papandreou, in October 2013 was sentenced to cal conflict has dangerously raised the tempera- 20 years for money laundering. Lesser figures ture of public debate. close to either the conservatives or the socialists As if to prove the critics right, the Greek presi- (or sometimes both) are also facing trial or have dency got off to an inauspicious start, marked by already been convicted. a series of events ranging from the grotesque to the tragic. Former Transport Minister Michalis CLEAN HANDS? Liapis was caught driving without a licence Superficially, this may look like a rerun of Italy’s and with counterfeit registration plates by traf- Operation Clean Hands in the early 1990s, when fic police too young to recognize him. It then judges exploited the weakness of the political transpired that his family home had been refur- elites who had been running the country since bished courtesy of Europe’s taxpayers: EU “struc- the end of World War II. Italian judges mercilessly tural funds” earmarked for upgrading tourism prosecuted businessmen who paid bribes for pub- infrastructure were diverted for his private use. lic contracts and politicians who took them. In the Since the faction Liapis belonged to in the ruling process, Clean Hands caused the ignominious end conservative party was no longer influential, the of the Italian First Republic and the dissolution of prime minister’s office declined to lift a finger to its political parties. stop the wheels of justice, opting instead for a What came next—the twenty long years of show of respect for judicial independence and Silvio Berlusconi helping Italian politics reach the rule of law. Liapis received a suspended sen- new depths—should temper Greeks’ enthusiasm tence of four years. for a judicial exit from their country’s woes. After With a weakened political elite making a all, notwithstanding the integrity and profession- virtue out of its inability to close ranks as it alism of many members of the judiciary (who tend did in the past, the prosecution of well-known to be younger and often female), there is something not quite convincing about Greek judges posing as the nation’s saviors. The judges are not MANOS MATSAGANIS is an associate professor of European social and employment policies at the Athens University of always immune to corruption and subservience to Economics and Business. their political masters, and their current crusade 110 The Catastrophic Greek Crisis • 111 against politicians is suspected of being at least ministers visiting Athens for meetings has been partly motivated by pique. tightened even further. In a recent ruling, the Judicial Pay Court (yes: One of the ministerial meetings concerned Greek judges practically set pay for themselves) immigration. Greece is calling for a revision of decided that recent salary cuts (modest, and the Dublin II Treaty provisions under which from a high level), imposed in the context of third-country nationals entering the EU illegally the government’s austerity policies, were “anti- must apply for asylum in the country of entry—to constitutional.” The Supreme Court also annulled which they will be returned if arrested elsewhere pay cuts for army officers on the grounds that in the EU. Such provisions are seen as unfair to they belonged to the “core” public sector—unlike those member states (particularly Greece and university professors, whose savage salary cuts Italy) with extended coastlines, through which can now be safely regarded as consistent with the the vast majority of undocumented immigrants letter and the spirit of the constitution. are smuggled into Europe. Other recent cases illustrate all that is wrong In an unintended manifestation of the incapac- with the Greek justice system. In a rather idio- ity or unwillingness of the Greek Coast Guard to syncratic interpretation of freedom of speech, a patrol borders effectively and humanely, 12 people court in Athens delivered a guilty verdict (with (including women and children) lost their lives a 10-month suspended sentence) for Philippos on January 22, 2014, when they fell overboard Loizos, a 27-year blogger. His crime? A blog from a boat they had shared with another 16 that parodied Elder Paisios of Mount Athos, refugees fleeing Syria and Afghanistan. Survivors an obscure Greek Orthodox monk who, since accused the Coast Guard of having done noth- his death in the mid-1990s, has become some- ing to avert the loss of life; the United Nations thing of a cult figure, his incoherent prophecies refugee agency suggested that aid was deliber- taken to be proof of saint- ately withheld as part of a hood by some members of “pushback” policy to prevent the Church’s flock (but not, The sustained effort necessary asylum seekers from reaching so far, by the Church itself). Greek territory. Yet the Coast to modernize the Greek state The disapproval of an ultra- Guard received the immediate conservative chorus sealed is still nowhere to be seen. backing of Merchant Marine the fate of the young blogger. Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, After an indignant speech in who failed to call for an inqui- Parliament by a member of the far-right Golden ry until urged to do so by European Home Affairs Dawn party, the public prosecutor finally autho- Commissioner Cecilia Malmström. rized the Electronic Crime Squad to divert scarce resources from the pursuit of pedophilia websites EXTREME VIOLENCE to the identification of the impertinent paro- Further excitement may be in store before dist, who wrote under the pseudonym “Elder Greece’s term is over. The May 2014 European Pastitsios.” Civil rights organizations protested, Parliament elections and the local and regional but were ignored. elections with which they are scheduled to coin- This show of exemplary harshness in dealing cide could turn into a rout for the government, with innocent fun contrasts unfavorably with which is backed by both the conservative New the relatively lenient treatment of Christodoulos Democracy and PASOK. These two political par- Xiros, who was serving a life sentence (he was ties have ruled the country since the restoration actually given six life sentences plus 25 years in of democracy in 1974—sometimes (as now) in jail) for his part in 33 terrorist attacks by the left- coalition, though more often in competition. The wing group November 17—including 6 murders. major beneficiaries of their decline, aided by a In spite of all this, Xiros had been allowed out on widely predicted low turnout (itself a sure sign short leave by two judges on seven occasions. On of pervasive disenchantment), are expected to be January 6, 2014, he broke parole and went miss- the radical left SYRIZA and the neo-Nazi Golden ing. A few days later he posted a homemade film Dawn. in which he rambled about the armed struggle Far-right militants have been known to assault and threatened spectacular actions. Since then, foreign immigrants—or worse, as in the case of security around EU officials and member state Shehzad Luqman, a 27-year-old Pakistani stabbed 112 • CURRENT HISTORY • March 2014 to death by two Golden Dawn supporters in Portugal, -7 percent) or in Ireland (-7 percent) January 2013. What tipped the balance and finally over the same period. So deep and drawn-out a spurred public authorities into action was the recession has few precedents in economic history, murder of a Greek: hip-hop musician Pavlos aside from the Great Depression in the United Fyssas, who was killed at the hands of a Golden States, where GDP fell by almost 30 percent Dawn gang in September 2013. Prime Minister between 1929 and 1933. Antonis Samaras let it be known that he person- The standard account of the Greek debt crisis ally “asked” the public prosecutor to arrest almost begins at the end of 2009, when the incoming the entire party leadership on charges of organiz- PASOK government announced that earlier fiscal ing a criminal group. (A few months earlier, the data had been misreported. Revised estimates for prime minister had unsuccessfully tried to reas- 2009 raised the budget deficit from 3.7 percent sure his European counterparts with the unfortu- to 15.6 percent of GDP, and the public debt from nate remark that “racism is incompatible with the 99.6 percent to 129.4 percent of GDP. Coming as Greek DNA.”) The leader of Golden Dawn, Nikos the European economy smarted from the impact Michaloliakos, has remained in custody since of the world financial crisis, and coinciding with October 2013, along with his deputy Christos sluggish growth everywhere, the news revived Pappas, 4 other MPs, and 14 party supporters.

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