Ioannis is a Greek boy anarchist 17 years old who knows by heart the history of the main anarchist leaders of the Second Spanish Republic, such as Buenaventura Durruti y Federica Monseny. “Spain and Greece “we have things in common,” he says in front of the mural that reminds Kyriakos Xymitirisan acrat who died two years ago while handling an explosive device. The face of Xymitris occupies the exterior façade of a building in the neighborhood of Exarchiain Athens. There are hundreds of murals and graffiti in this part of the Greek capital.
Exarchia is known for being the center of protests by leftist and anarchist groups. In memory remain the more than 40 young people who died in 1973 when, in the midst of the colonels’ dictatorship, a student revolt at the Polytechnic University, located in the neighborhood. The walls of the neighborhood also evoke the massacre, as well as by police shooting at a protest in 2008. Today, the graffiti refers to the genocide in Gaza and to the process of gentrification that the area suffers. The nights of Exarchia pass under the surveillance of riot police stationed in front of restaurants, cocktail bars and alternative venues.
The history of modern Greece is replete with shocks y popular revolts. Since its independence from Ottoman Empire in 1921, he lived revolutions, civil wars, two world wars, coups d’état, three republics, communist guerrilla fight, terrorist violencethe economic bankruptcy and even the imposition from outside foreign monarchs. The first king of modern Greece was a German, Otto of Bavariawho reigned from 1832 to 1862. The last, Constantino IIbrother of the queen Sofiawas the great-grandson of King George I of Greece, born into the royal family of Denmark. The colonels’ coup d’état sent him into exile in 1967.
Between the worlds
The Hellenic Republic (official name of the country) lives between two worlds, the western one, which unites it to the EU, and the eastern one, linked to the orthodox church. The dictatorshipwhich lasted seven years, relied on religion to legitimize its power. He forced the population to attend church, forbade men to wear long hair and women to wear short skirts. The strict censorship It affected texts from the Greek classics. Also to music. The composer, politician and activist Mijalis Theodorakis He suffered years of exile in a town in the Peloponnese, where there are in his memory. The student massacre in Exarchia It was the beginning of the end of the dictatorship, which fell a year later.
But the protests did not end there. Street fighting has been constant since the transition democratic until today. For four decades power was in the hands of two parties, the socialist ENTER and the conservative New Democracy (ND)under the leadership of three political dynasties: Papandreou, Karamanlis y Mitsotakis. He went to 2008 financial crash the one who broke the bipartisanship. The leftist burst onto the scene Syriza of the former prime minister Alexis Tsipras. The neo-Nazi party also appeared .
and successive governments were forced to apply severe measures of austerity in exchange for bailouts. The cities of Greece were transformed . Suicides increased. In five years, the economy shrank by a quarter and the unemployment reached 25%, especially affecting the youths. From 2010 to 2017, half a million graduates left the country, a 10% of the active population. The young people marched while a wave of refugees arrived on the Greek coasts fleeing the wars in the Middle East. To all this we must add the pandemic.
Effects of the crisis still palpable
Today Greece has come out of the hole, although day-to-day life continues to be difficult for the majority of the population. Too many people sleeping on the streets. The public debt is the largest in the EU, the health system is still suffering the effects of the crisis and housing and rental prices It does not stop rising in neighborhoods like Exarchia. He purchasing power of Greeks is among the lowest in the EU with a interannual inflation that exceeds 5%.
Since 2019, the prime minister has been at the head of the country , leader of New Democracy, who governs with absolute majority and that he hopes to renew his mandate in next year’s elections. are favorable to him, despite the that affect the Government. The socialists are still in low hours and the left is fragmented and weakened. The extreme rightrepresented by three parties in Parliament, occupies more than 12% of the seats.
Like other European leaders, Mitsotakis has adopted the anti-immigration speech of the ultras and defends to Africa. A measure that the left and anarchist movements oppose. It was the anarchists of Exarchia, like Ioannis, who sheltered the refugees who arrived in Athens in the 2015 crisis.
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