The story so far
For those who don’t have a clear picture of the history of modern Greece, here follows a brief retrospect.
In order to save some of your time, we present some facts quite simplified, though trying not to misquote the actual facts. In the text you will find several links leading to articles of the english Wikipedia, just in case someone would like to know more. Wesuggestthatyoufollowtheselinks. For whatever question or remark you would like to make, please feel free to contact us through the contact form at the bottom of the home page. We’ll be glad to help.
Greece was founded in 1830, winning its independence from the Ottoman empire (with the support of England, France and Russia). Till then this specific territory had been occupied by the Ottoman-Turks since the 15th century. Ever since its foundation and up to WW2 a lot of interesting things happened, but this is not the place to analyze any further. If you want to know more check here.
After the end of WW2, Greece gets in a civil war between rightists (pro-british/american) and communists (pro-soviet). The civil war lasted for 3 years and it cost the country much more casualties than the ones Greece had during WW2. In the end, and with the help of the US Army, the rightists won and as a result, thousands of communist families fled to the eastern block countries to avoid execution or detaining. For more see here.
Any remaining communists/leftists are sent to concentration camps, but they are given the chance to be free, if they will only sign a “statement of regret” for their actions and beliefs. Some do, others don’t, as their comrades consider it humiliating. Even for many years after the end of the civil war, being a relative to a communist was sufficient reason for not being allowed to study in any university; even getting a job was a hard thing to achieve.
Even though it’s now more than 60 years since the civil war ended, a survey published in 2008 in Kathimerini, a major greek newspaper, shows that a big part of greek people are still willing to take sides.
While to the question “Do you believe it was better for Greece that the rightists won?” 43% said Yes and 13% said that they think it would be better if the communists had won, at the same time, when asked "Which side would you have supported had you lived in that era?” only 14% said "the right wing” when 23% said "the left wing".
After the end of the civil war, the Communist Party was pronounced outlaw. But then comes up a new left party, EDA, which gradually gains the people’s support, and in the 1958 election they come second, with 24% of the votes. In order to face the threat of an even stronger left party, a military coup (with the cooperation of the US government) takes place in 1967. The leader of the coup, colonel Papadopoulos, in his first message to the greek people says that "the army took action in order to protect the country from the communists". Leftists are once again being hunted down, detained, tortured. President Clinton expressed his regret for the support that the US gave the military regime, during his visit to Athens in 1999. See also here.
The coup falls apart 7 years later as a result of the Cyprus conflict and the war against Turkey, while a few months earlier there had been a major riot in Athens against the regime.
In 1974, for the first time in 50 years there are truly free elections. The right party (New Democracy) wins. Its leader, Karamanlis is the uncle of the up-to-last-October prime minister of Greece. The country now is run under democratic principles and Karamanlis (who as a prime minister in the mid-1960’s had hunted down the leftists) now behaves according to a new, more liberal constitution. In the 1981 election, a new party comes to power. It is PASOK, a party calling itself “socialist”. Its leader is Papandreou, whose son is the current prime minister of Greece, he too as a leader of the same party. His grandfather was the first prime minister of Greece after the end of the war, in a british-controlled government. Since 1974, these 2 parties have succeeded each other in power. Their failure in finances can be seen in the chart below, showing the national debt as a percentage of the GDP through the years:
1974 22,5% of GDP
1981 31,2% of GDP
1985 Greece has the highest national debt per capita in the world
1987 56,1% of GDP
1990 80,7% of GDP
1993 111,6% of GDP
2004 108,5% of GDP
2008 97,16% of GDP
Source: Bank of Greece
For many years, politicians along with a big part of the people created a scenery of corruption. Candidates for parliament members offer voters jobs in the public sector in exchange for votes. Public servants in 1978 were approx. 300.000. In 1987 they were approx. 640.000. Today the estimates rise up to 800.000. Greece has 7 times more public teachers per student than Finland, which is supposed to be the country with the best educational system worldwide. Corruption is spread on all levels of the state, from the army, to the police, the health system, the tax administration. In a recent survey, 90% of the people asked, say that at least once they took part in a corrupt transaction with a government institution.
Despite all that, in the last 35 years the standard of living of the people has risen significantly, thanks to the constant financing programs of the EU and the tendency of government officials to hire even more public servants and spend this money in non-productive ways.
Today it is proven that greek governments have been constantly giving fake figures for the economy to the European Commission. Greece now has a national debt rising up to 132% of the GDP, i.e. 330 bn euros (430 bn $)
I can see the question coming: Did anyone ever go to jail?
The answer is no. In Greece there’s a law that protects parliament members from being prosecuted. If there’s a suspicion against someone, he is to be judged by a committee of other parliament members. So in all cases, suspects are being backed by their colleagues. Another law says that public servants can’t get fired. What more, Justice couldn’t have been the only institution unaffected by corruption.
Even though in the last 2 years, 2 major scandals have been revealed, up to this day there hasn’t been a single charge against any official or citizen.
Examples:
Siemens scandal 1 2
Vatopedi scandal 1
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