Greeks ‘ feeling hopeless’
Lean times are about to get leaner for a nation that’s used to austerity
After the capitulation of Greece this week to its creditor nations in Europe, Panagiotis Katsis, a retired accountant, did what he does best. The math. Under the harsh conditions of Greece’s $ 124- billion Cdn bailout, social security will be cut. The 65- year- old calculates that will shave 45 euros — about $ 65 — off his 950- euro- a- month check.
Property taxes are also set to rise, so he’s budgeting for a hit of about 700 euros a year. Add creditors’ demands to raise national revenue through price hikes on a host of foods — pasta, canned tuna, cereal, you name it — and he’s guessing 35 euros more on his monthly grocery bill.
“Europe thinks of Greece only as numbers,” said Katsis, who now supports himself and his wife, a retired housewife, on his pension cheque.
“Cut this. Cut that. But we are people, and we’ve had five years of this already. We’ve had enough.”
For 11 million Greeks, lean times are about to get leaner. The cost of life on many Greek islands is set to go up. Many foods will be more expensive. Coffee bars will pay higher taxes. Retirees will shell out more for their medicines.
The raft of tax increases and pension reforms has led to growing anger among Greece’s governing left- wing Syriza party, while the country’s civil servants’ union voiced its objections with a 24hour public- sector strike.
The Greeks are used to austerity by now. They’ve lived it since 2010, when budget- slashing measures led to across- the- board cuts, including the firing of public servants and the introduction of new taxes.
The pain piled on in 2012, when a second bailout brought the bitter pill of more austerity. Now, in the midst of a never- ending economic plunge more painful than the Great Depression, another dose of austerity is around the corner.
Yet many Greeks aren’t so much outraged as disillusioned that Greece’s creditors would drive such a hard bargain. They’re disillusioned with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who vowed to just say no to European demands, but ended up just saying yes.
Yet without the bailout, it would have been worse. Greek banks faced imminent collapse and a messy exit from the euro currency union.
So maybe it’s not as bad as it could have been. But that’s cold comfort for many Greeks.
Last Sunday night, Fratzeska Sklavou, 45, and her husband, Kosmas Thanasias, 52, were glued to the TV set. European leaders led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel were wearing Tsipras down, threatening to let his country go bankrupt if he didn’t sign a harsh cash- for- cuts deal.
They believed in Tsipras. They thought he would hold out.
One of the austerity measures on the table was a higher tax for Greek coffee shops that will cost their business about $ 1,300 a month. The next morning, they awoke to discover that Tsipras had caved.
“We didn’t blame him,” Sklavou said. “They gave him no choice. But right now, it’s hard to know who to blame. We’re just upset. More than upset, we’re feeling hopeless.”
For retirees like Katsis, the new round of austerity means another choice. What to cut now?
After a 20 per cent austerity cut to his pension in August 2012, he gave up his favourite hobby — making homemade wine — because he couldn’t afford the grapes and bottles anymore.
Now, “there’s not much left to cut,” he said.
But, Katsis is also an example of why Greece’s creditors drove such a bargain. He’s now 65. But under one of the most generous retirement systems in Europe, he was able to retire in 2011 at age 61.
Among other changes demanded by Europe, come 2022, most Greeks will need to wait until age 67 to retire.