Spotlight on Greece

Spotlight on

A selection of our favourite articles, old and new, on...

Copenhagen attack: from the archive

Greek election 2015

Will this be the election that changes Europe?

Charlie Hebdo attack

Our coverage of the Charlie Hebdo attack

Save Europe today

No to TTIP

The secretive EU-US trade deal explained

European Cities in Conflict

Independence movements in Europe

Eutopia

Confronting Europe's problem with far-right violence

Teatro Valle

Teatro Valle: searching for a European commons

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Migration in Europe

Building a common foreign policy in crisis Europe: mission impossible?

A selection of our best articles on Europe.

EU 2.0? Towards sustainable integration

Kalypso Nicolaïdis

Shutterstock/Vicente Barcelo Varona. Some rights reserved.

An emblematic victim of the euro crisis, Greece has paid a hard price for the accumulation of small mistakes and severe wrongdoings over the last decades – some of its own, some foreign.

The Greek people, strangled by austerity, massive unemployment and rising poverty, have lost control over their own destiny. This massive injustice is being exploited by radical factions who prefer scapegoating vulnerable groups to finding real, sustainable solutions for a better future.

It is, indeed, easy to be cynical about Greece. But there is hope! Local initiatives are blooming across the country, to reknit the social fabric and positive politics are on their way back. Will it be enough to brighten the future of so many disillusioned Greeks? Only time will tell.

A selection of our best articles on rebuilding Greece.

Sisa: is meth use the latest face of the catastrophe in Athens?

Joseph Rowlands and Kyriakos Klosidis 26 September 2013

Meth – or Sisa, as it has been called on the streets of Athens – has become the drug of choice for a rising number of drug addicts in Greece. After Golden Dawn and rampant poverty, is meth use the latest face of the catastrophe in Athens?

Of course Greece will need a third bailout. But it won't be for the people.

Yiannis Baboulias 2 September 2013

By now, a clear picture of what sort of behaviour the two previous bail-outs have supported ought to have emerged. Further aid, which will definitely be accompanied by further cuts and “reforms”, will only add to the burden imposed on Greek people.

Immigration detention and state denial in Greece

Leonidas K.Cheliotis 29 August 2013

In recent years, the Greek state has routinely deflected domestic and international criticism of the conditions in its immigration detention centres. It has achieved this by wielding several discursive strategies, chief amongst which has been evocation of philoxenia as a natural trait common to all Greeks.

The Greek catastrophe and a possible way out

Dimitri B. Papadimitriou and C.J.Polychroniou 24 July 2013

The lead author of a major econometric analysis of the Greek economic crisis discusses the disastrous outcomes of the policies enforced on Greece by its international lenders, and the IMF’s admission that it made serious errors in its assessment of the impact of austerity on the Greek economy and society.

With fists in their pockets

Jon Wiltshire 31 May 2013

In Greece, news of a return to economic growth is more or less meaningless to those thoroughly affected and thoroughly angered. Politicians should focus on repairing people’s lives, not on GDP growth.

Greece, fascism and beyond

Eleftheria Lekakis 29 May 2013

As a Greek, I am burdened by the recent developments in the southeasternmost corner of the European Union.

Why the future of Greece lies in the rise of a new civil society and education

Yannis Theocharis 14 January 2013

One of the biggest challenges for post-austerity Greece will be the rebuilding of a strong civil society. Future foundations are already being laid out through new and exciting citizen initiatives, but much is yet to be done.

Is Greece a racist state?

Iannis Carras 21 December 2012

Mainstream politicians have been playing a dangerous game. It remains unclear to what extent these tactics represent a conscious attempt to distract those suffering most as a result of the longterm maladministration of the country. But this constitutes only a small part of the scenario we are investigating here.

Scarcity, shame and flapping arms in Athens

Pepe Egger 2 October 2012

Since February 2010, the crisis in Greece is being addressed with austerity measures as prescribed by the troika of EU, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund. At present, the government is negotiating yet more austerity, even if past measures failed to produce the desired results. On the contrary: their consequences are already devastating.