The small village of Chora Sfakion, Sfakia, Chania, southern part of Crete island, Greece. NurPhoto/Press Association. All rights reserved.
“Those columns there,” he says pointing at the stone colonnade of the cosy village-square café we were sitting in, “my father built those. He was the better craftsman. I struggle to make ends meet.” He had picked the venue. I wondered if it was just to point that out.
The craftsman
He is one of hundreds of Greeks I have met in my tour of the country in the last four months. I have been visiting every prefecture capital to set up the infrastructure for our party, MeRA25, to run in the upcoming European (and almost certainly national) elections. A daunting task, both practically – 80% of the country is mountainous and getting anywhere involves a long, potholed, winding road – as well as psychologically. Nowhere is the crushing effect of the Troika’s near-decade-long austerity policies more depressingly obvious than in the deserted high-streets and squares of the country’s provincial towns and villages.
