So, let's deal with the elephant in the room. Greece is going through a widely publicized economic crisis at the root of a much deeper issue plaguing all of the Eurozone. As it stands, around 25% of the population is unemployed. For the Greek youth, that number basically doubles, if I'm not mistaken. And there's nothing more unstable than an unemployed, disgruntled, and unmarried young male. Throw all of these in the mix with the pervasive culture of demonstration and protest in Greece, and you've got a recipe for what the media would call anarchy. Demonstrations occur on a weekly (if not daily) basis in Syntagma Square outside of the Greek Parliament. These demonstrations are normally very peaceful, if not a little chaotic. However, it's become pretty standard for these protests to be infiltrated by anarchists or (more often than not) young men that are bored and restless, looking for trouble. Their frequent skirmishes with the Greek police are typically mild, but the standard response for riot control is tear gas. As a result, the international media has a somewhat skewed perception that Athens is burning, a real life Armageddon.
Having attended several of these demonstrations, I'm starting to get the sense that all of the focus on the protests and their violent turns have shifted attention away from their purpose, both in and outside of Greece. Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, visited Athens last week in a show of support for the German-backed austerity measures that are meant to reign in the astronomical debt here in Greece. It was her first visit since 2007, and I'm frankly not surprised - thousands of demonstrators gathered outside of Parliament dressed up in Nazi uniforms, bearing signs condemning the German "fascism", or protesting European interference in Greek politics and economics. But what struck me most about the demonstration was the diversity of attendants. I talked to several different people about their thoughts on the situation, and there was no one general consensus. Everyone there was protesting something different. I talked to a university student that was protesting the austerity measures, but thought that nothing would come of the protests, because she "had been going to them since she was 16 and nothing has happened." Another woman represented the Immigrant Workers Union and was protesting the radical Golden Dawn political party in Greece. A third was there just to attend, and said they didn't have any problem with Merkel at all. And the so-called anarchists, the ones that instigated the eventual violence and police response? They're easily identifiable by their motorcycle helmets, gas masks, or scarcely concealed clubs. The ones that I saw before leaving the demonstration couldn't have been much older than teenagers. I got the feeling that they weren't there to protest the economic situation, but rather to stir up trouble.
I've been fascinated by the economic situation here - it's a large part of why I chose to study in Greece. Rather than focus on the protests, I've been more interested in talking to people about their opinions on the austerity measures and the entire crisis. All of the responses are mixed and there isn't any consensus besides the opinion that austerity is more hurtful than helpful. My marble carving instructor claims that Greece is embroiled in the "Third World War" of economics with Germany. A taxi driver blamed the Greek troubles on the growing immigrant population (one of the main arguments of the far-right Golden Dawn party). No one has any idea how things will pan out - if Greece will stick to the Euro or go to back to the Drachma, if the EU will remain intact. Needless to say, it's an incredibly interesting time to be in Greece. There are protests for sure, some of them violent, but not nearly on the level the international media makes it out to be - I only heard about a protest turning violent several weeks ago because I read about it later in the New York Times. I worry more that everyone will lose sight of why these protests are occurring in the first place.
