{"id":345920,"date":"2021-10-12T09:25:33","date_gmt":"2021-10-12T09:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacobinmag.com\/2021\/10\/syriza-greece-radical-left-austerity-covid-19-climate-change-rebuild\/"},"modified":"2021-10-12T11:10:20","modified_gmt":"2021-10-12T11:10:20","slug":"still-demoralized-by-syriza-greeces-left-is-struggling-to-rebuild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/10\/12\/still-demoralized-by-syriza-greeces-left-is-struggling-to-rebuild\/","title":{"rendered":"Still Demoralized by Syriza, Greece\u2019s Left Is Struggling to Rebuild"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n\n\n\n

In Greece, the right-wing government\u2019s authoritarian measures have sparked important social struggles. But after Alexis Tsipras\u2019s dismal spell in government, the Left faces an uphill battle to overcome Syriza\u2019s legacy and show that an alternative is possible.<\/h3>\n\n\n
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\n Demonstrations organized by Syriza, the umbrella union of civil servants ADEDY, and the Communist\u2013affiliated PAME labor union in Athens, Greece, July 2020. (Lefteris Partsalis \/ Xinhua via Getty)\n <\/figcaption> \n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n \n

\u201cCrystal-clear waters, constant sunshine, explosive local flavors and sublime sunsets”: so promised the \u201cEndless Greek Summer<\/a>,\u201d Greece\u2019s official 2020 campaign to promote tourism. A year and an environmental disaster later, everyone is asking where this summer went \u2014 and who actually enjoyed it.<\/p>\n

According to a poll for the \u0399nstitute of Retail Consumer Goods (IELKA)<\/a>, only one in three Greeks said they would take a vacation in 2021, with many unable to do so given their dire financial situation. Those who stayed in the cities had to endure the heat, the toxic atmosphere, the lack of quality creative activities for children, and even power cuts, with the supply exhausted by both excessive use and extreme weather.<\/p>\n

In this context, the promise of an “endless Greek summer” sounds like something from a bygone era. But from a climate perspective, it also sounds like a threat. For this summer, Greece was hit by repeated heat waves, the country’s worst in over three decades. Temperatures soared to a record-breaking 47 degrees Celsius (around 116 degrees Fahrenheit). Extreme heat conditions facilitated rampaging wildfires which destroyed a hundred twenty hectares of land \u2014 ten times the average<\/a> across the last decade.<\/p>\n

This was also a summer where Greece “re-opened” in order to make way for the tourist industry\u2019s customers \u2014 a \u201csuccess story\u201d which came at a heavy cost in terms of infections and hospitalizations. Faced with an alarming rise in COVID-19 cases and still-poor vaccination rates, Greeks are asking whether the government will impose a new series of restrictions this fall.<\/p>\n

So, for the last two years, Greece has seemed as if it is switching between two national costumes. The winter one consists of rising coronavirus deaths, decimated hospitals, unemployment, business closures, severe restrictions, and authoritarianism. Then, after May, Greece puts on its summer clothes to welcome the foreign guests. And from October, we\u2019re back to the satanic mills, with the government blaming the crisis on \u201cirresponsible citizens,\u201d just like usual.<\/p>\n\n \n\n \n \n \n

Austerity and the Pandemic<\/h2>\n \n

Kyriakos Mitsotakis\u2019s right-wing New Democracy government dealt with the pandemic through successive lockdowns and restrictions on movement \u2014 but only minimal compensation to the sectors of the economy hit hardest by the pandemic. Measures to bolster the capacity and efficiency of Greece\u2019s failing public services proved both scarce and insufficient. Instead, the government used the state of emergency to promote anti-labor and authoritarian laws, including the abolition of the eight-hour workday and the creation of a special police force on university campuses.<\/p>\n

The COVID-19 health crisis exacerbated all aspects of austerity. Unemployment<\/a> topped 15 percent in May 2021 \u2014 19.1 percent for women and 12.3 percent for men. Once again, Greece was worst in the European Union (EU) for youth unemployment, with around 38.2 percent of youth jobless in May 2021.<\/p>\n

The pandemic dramatically exposed the vulnerabilities of a public health system already hit hard by ten years of austerity. Understaffed care facilities simply lacked the resources to deal with the pandemic’s devastating health and social effects; indeed, since 2009, health spending has declined significantly compared to other European states. Today, public health expenditure in Greece stands at 5 percent of GDP<\/a>, one-third lower than the EU average.<\/p>\n

These spending cuts, combined with structural changes in the National Health System and the introduction of precarious forms of employment, have eroded access to public health. Unmet health care needs among the low-income population and the unemployed have increased heavily<\/a>, with a 21.5 percent rate among the unemployed and 34.3 percent among low-income strata in need of treatment.<\/p>\n

Gender-based violence (GBV) also increased during the pandemic. According to a report<\/a> from the General Secretariat for Demography and Family Policy and Gender Equality published last November, lockdowns, quarantine measures, and movement restrictions “resulted in domestic violence being more frequent and more serious for women and their children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calls to the emergency telephone line dedicated to GBV increased by 230 percent during the first lockdown. Furthermore, during the first and the second lockdowns (November 2020 to May 2021), a series of brutal, disturbing femicides revealed the extent of domestic abuse and gender-based violence in Greece. Overall, since the start of the pandemic, eleven women have been murdered by their husbands or partners.<\/p>\n

Despite the clear social fallout of the crisis, the government has promoted a narrative centered on individual responsibility. The “stay home, stay safe” slogan emphasized personal choice rather than solidarity to minimize the spread of the disease. Citizens were regarded as isolated individuals \u2014 indeed, potential offenders.<\/p>\n

In this context, it was unsurprising that many hesitated to join the vaccination campaign, not least given public authorities\u2019 failure to organize a proper communication campaign and address public anxieties by explaining scientific expertise. The Ministry of Health and the National Vaccination Committee openly expressed doubts about whether the AstraZeneca jab was suitable for young and pregnant women under age thirty-nine, even when this was the only vaccine available for this age group. Given the generalized lack of credibility of the state\u2019s measures, irrational and individualistic approaches flourished.<\/p>\n

However, blaming the unvaccinated doesn’t help to understand the current pandemic in Greece. As of September only 56 percent<\/a> of the country’s population had been fully vaccinated, with even lower rates among eighteen to twenty-four year olds (51 percent), twenty-five to forty-nine year olds (40 percent), and Greeks in their fifties (28.5 percent). Approximately 90 percent<\/a> of the intubated COVID-19 patients admitted in ICU are unvaccinated.<\/p>\n

In September, Greece was also among the worst three EU countries<\/a> in deaths per million, alongside Bulgaria and Lithuania. These numbers are the consequence of an insufficient rate of vaccination among the most vulnerable populations. But instead of a targeted effort to protect those groups, the government uses the vaccination campaign as a tool to escalate authoritarianism, layoffs, shifting of responsibilities, and attacks on already decimated state agencies. The result is a growing frustration against the government, without addressing the resistance to the vaccine.<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n

Wildfires as a Business Opportunity<\/h2>\n \n

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis did acknowledge that this year\u2019s wildfires were a sign of the current climate crisis \u2014 but he also insisted that the issue should be treated as \u201cpolitically neutral.\u201d Greece does, indeed, have a long history of wildfires. But the country crucially lacks a unified framework<\/a> for preventing these blazes and protecting its forests.<\/p>\n