Greeks ‘blame’ foreigners for economic tragedy

MOST Greeks think their economic crisis over the past four years was “premeditated” by foreign centres of influence, according to a university survey report issued on Friday.

The survey of slightly more than 1 000 people, published in Kathimerini daily, also found that Greeks are firm believers in urban myths.

In answer to a question about whether the crisis was “premeditated by foreign centres of influence”, more than 75% answered “yes”. In addition, 69% thought a cure for cancer existed, 59% believed the 2001 al-Qaeda attacks were a US plot and 27% that the 1969 lunar landing was staged.

Greece descended into economic crisis in 2010 after the then socialist government revealed that the state’s public deficit estimates had been misreported by the previous administration.

The subsequent loss of confidence in Greece on financial markets pushed the country’s borrowing costs unbearably high, and it was forced to seek an EU-IMF bailout.

Deep reform of the economy and huge cuts in public spending imposed in return for the rescue cost hundreds of thousands of jobs, and wages and pensions were cut sharply.

“The economic crisis seems to exacerbate phenomena of irrational political thought,” said George Antoniou, one of the researchers who worked on the project.

The survey was conducted by researchers of the University of Oxford, the University of Macedonia and the International Hellenic University in Thessaloniki. — AFP