“This is not our debt”

“Students have been demonstrating for four years now,” said Costas Todoulos, a 23 year old student of Economics at the University of Athens and a member of Ant.Ar.Sy (the coalition for the anti capitalist left). 

Since the Greek government, the EU and the IMF started negotiating a debt-recovery package for Greece the country has seen three general strikes. On May 20, 2010, Greek Unions will go on strike for the fourth time.

Student groups have played a large part in the strikes.

Not always seen as being a positive presence, extremist groups were informally accused of the deaths of three people during the May 5 protest. They were again accused on May 14, this time for a bomb explosion outside a prison in Athens which resulted in injuries but no deaths.  

Ongoing feud

Their presence highlight the discontent felt by the Greek youth. A discontent that goes back at least four years, when students first took to the streets to protest former governments policies to privatize the University system.

“This isn’t the first time that we have been asked to make sacrifices in order to ‘save’ the economy,” said Dimitra Per, a student at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens – she is sympathetic with the cause of the protesters but did not participate herself.

In 2008, a 15 year old, Alexandros Grigoropoulos, was shot dead by a Greek police officer during a protest in Greece. The incident was ruled an accident, but in the eyes of many students the ruling was just another sign of government corruption.

This is not our debt

While past events still provokes the unrest felt by Greek students, this year’s activism is specifically a fight against the austerity package passed by the Greek parliament on May 6, 2010.

“We will not pay for the government’s crisis,” said Per.

“We want the bankers, the rich and the politicians to pay for it,” added Todoulos.

An uncertain future

Greece will receive the first part of the IMF-EU loan on May 19, which will go towards the repayment of Greece’s debt. The government has already started to adopt changes to policies concerning pensions and wages in the public sector.

According to these two Athenian students, the Greek youth is fed up with the political situation in the country but they are not pessimistic about Greece’s future.

“Nobody knows what will happen next. People say Greece will either see a massive depression or massive uprising, we certainly hope for the latter,” said Per.

“Although we are seeing a fall in living standard, we won’t give up and immigrate, yet. The Greeks have a long tradition of resistance,” said Todoulos.

Link to Vita Europe interview of Transparency International chairman in Greece.