:00:14. > :00:17.Tonight on Panorama, the human face of a European tragedy. Where
:00:17. > :00:23.austerity means pharmacists run out of medicine.
:00:23. > :00:32.I cannot sleep. I don't know if it is my fault and how I can solve the
:00:32. > :00:42.problem. Where middle-class families rely on
:00:42. > :00:48.charity to feed their children. Where fear of immigration is being
:00:48. > :00:55.stoked by the far - right. I'm scared. They hate me.
:00:55. > :01:00.Who are they? The Pakistan... week's election result, may have
:01:00. > :01:05.saved the Euro for now. This is a victory for all of Europe.
:01:05. > :01:09.But can the Greeks trust their leaders to get it right this time?
:01:09. > :01:12.Those who have brought us to where we are today cannot be the vision
:01:12. > :01:16.Aries tomorrow. If not, how much longer with the
:01:17. > :01:26.people's patience hold out? We have nothing. No jobs no work. We have
:01:27. > :01:30.
:01:30. > :01:35.-- rise up and fight. In the run-up to the June election
:01:35. > :01:38.I went to Greece to find out how the people are coping with a crisis
:01:38. > :01:44.that threatens to destroy their once comfortable existence.
:01:44. > :01:46.I had been coming here for the past 20 years, ever since my son
:01:46. > :01:52.Christopher moved here. Hi dad.
:01:52. > :01:56.Back in the days when life was good. We have seen this country change
:01:56. > :02:00.almost beyond recognition. That is for rent. That is for rent.
:02:00. > :02:08.Kotstopholous has gone out of business. Half of them are empty or
:02:08. > :02:13.for rent. Rethis? Are they.
:02:13. > :02:18.Since joining the Euro, Greece has enjoyed a most spectacular boom
:02:18. > :02:22.since joining the Euro. Now it is suffering from an even more
:02:22. > :02:29.spectacular bust. It is just decimated.
:02:29. > :02:32.Some of the fruits of the wild and unchecked optimism are still
:02:32. > :02:36.unchecked, because the rich have held on to their wealth and some
:02:36. > :02:40.are very rich indeed. It's the rest who have suffered.
:02:40. > :02:44.Especially in the past four years. Their political leaders had
:02:44. > :02:54.delivered the message that they could have it all, without too much
:02:54. > :02:56.
:02:56. > :03:00.effort. They believed them. It was William Beveridge who
:03:00. > :03:05.identified the five giant evils that threaten a nation, want,
:03:06. > :03:12.disease, squallior, idleness, ignorance. That was 70 years ago.
:03:12. > :03:20.That nation was Great Britain. Those same giant evils threaten
:03:20. > :03:24.this nation today. When Christopher came here to work
:03:24. > :03:28.in a brand new Orchestra in the early nineties, it seemed that the
:03:28. > :03:33.giants had been slain. How much more enticing for a young man was
:03:33. > :03:38.the prospect of a good life in the sun with a guaranteed job, than
:03:38. > :03:42.dowdy old Britain, still recovering from a recession? Now he and his
:03:43. > :03:47.wife, Peppy, fear for the future of his young family. His salary has
:03:47. > :03:51.been slashed and the Orchestra is fighting to survive. She works as a
:03:51. > :03:56.lawyer but never knows which clients will pay and which will not.
:03:56. > :04:02.Things were still good when we all ziegted eight years ago to build a
:04:02. > :04:09.house here, but now when I return and catch up with old friends...
:04:09. > :04:14.Hello! The mood has changed. My neighbours know what it to blame.
:04:14. > :04:18.Here in Greece in the last 30 years, the half of the people go to live
:04:18. > :04:28.in Athens. An easy life with easy money.
:04:28. > :04:28.
:04:28. > :04:33.So, we stroped to produce and to export -- so we stopped production.
:04:34. > :04:40.We stopped thinking like Greeks. We want to do holidays all of the year
:04:40. > :04:45.like the tourists. We want easy work. Like this. What has to be
:04:45. > :04:51.done to get Greece out of trouble? The problem in Greece is that we
:04:51. > :04:57.need jobs. We need to work. We have to pay taxes.
:04:57. > :05:01.We have very, very big problems. Are you worried? I work too much.
:05:01. > :05:05.Very worried. Definitely. It is a big problem.
:05:05. > :05:13.Before Greece joined the European Union, 17% of its people worked in
:05:13. > :05:17.farming and fishing. Now it is 3%. Exports have fallen, imports have
:05:17. > :05:22.risen. The population of Athens doubled in two generations and the
:05:22. > :05:25.country has forgotten how to earn its keep. My neighbour, Nikos has
:05:25. > :05:31.to support two grown up children in Athens as they are unemployed. For
:05:31. > :05:35.most of his life he was a ship's engineer, with a good pension. He
:05:36. > :05:41.was enjoying his retire whment I first met him. Now he is struggling.
:05:41. > :05:48.Once he fished for the pleasure of it, now it is for need.
:05:48. > :05:55.A good pension... I was on the ships for 3 years to earn a pension
:05:55. > :06:01.that I could live on. I had about 1,000 Euros a month. He a good life.
:06:01. > :06:06.Now they have cut my pension by 300 Euros. I have two children in
:06:06. > :06:12.Athens, don't they need to eat? They are now unemployed.
:06:12. > :06:22.How are you managing to find the money? I couldn't manage. I bought
:06:22. > :06:27.that little boat to catch the fish to eat. How will I live? Nikos is
:06:27. > :06:32.not alone. On average pensions have been cut 30%. It is estimated that
:06:32. > :06:38.40% of Greeks could soon be living in poverty. Imagine that in
:06:38. > :06:42.Britain? 24 million people on the breadline? Greek culture, classic
:06:42. > :06:49.literature is suffused with morality tales, the most famous of
:06:49. > :06:53.them all, of course, King Midas, whose one great wish was that
:06:54. > :06:58.everything he touched would turn to gold. As every other school child
:06:58. > :07:05.know it is worked brilliantly for a while, then he came to grief.
:07:05. > :07:10.In many ways, the story of Greece is a modern morality tale. This
:07:10. > :07:14.small country could have have had a modest economy, but Greece cooked
:07:14. > :07:19.the books in its desperation to join the Euro and the E U-turned a
:07:19. > :07:23.blind eye. When all of that cheap borrowing
:07:23. > :07:33.was thrust at them, the Greeks grabbed it and spent it but when
:07:33. > :07:36.
:07:36. > :07:42.the bills started to come in, they Greece is a country that knows
:07:42. > :07:47.about suffering. The Nazi occupation was perhaps the
:07:47. > :07:53.most brutal in Europe. At least 200,000 people starved to death,
:07:53. > :07:56.many more were murdered. With the allied victory there came not peace,
:07:56. > :08:01.but savage Civil War. Nationalist forces supported by the allies
:08:01. > :08:08.defeated the communist, but then... After two decades, the army took
:08:08. > :08:12.over. A ruthless military dictatorship ruled until 1974, when
:08:12. > :08:18.the people overthrew the generals and opted for democracy.
:08:18. > :08:21.And now there is a new enemy, austerity does not pick and choose
:08:21. > :08:26.its victims. You sense that some people are beginning to lose the
:08:27. > :08:30.will to fight. But not all.
:08:30. > :08:34.Something extraordinary is happening here. All over the
:08:34. > :08:39.country volunteer organisations are springing up to help the people in
:08:39. > :08:45.the most desperate need. Stepping in where the state has
:08:46. > :08:51.failed. This may look like any other small
:08:51. > :09:01.coner -- corner shop, but it is not. The goods are given to families who
:09:01. > :09:02.
:09:02. > :09:06.cannot afford the basic necessities. Melina was 14 when she told her
:09:06. > :09:11.mother, Roubini Terzaki to set up a charity for the most needy. That
:09:11. > :09:15.was four years ago. Today, there are 4,500 people.
:09:15. > :09:19.Every day there are about 60 or 70 families in need.
:09:19. > :09:23.New families? Yes. They are asking for your help?
:09:23. > :09:27.That is a bad surprise. In a sense, I suppose, that there
:09:27. > :09:33.is a citizens' army being formed of volunteers who are saying that the
:09:33. > :09:38.state has let us down so we will get together and do it oufs? When
:09:38. > :09:44.your house is -- and do it ourselves? When your house is on
:09:44. > :09:49.fire you don't stay desperate, you do something. That is what we do.
:09:49. > :09:54.The operation is expanding by the day, it has to. Unemployment in
:09:54. > :09:58.Greece is now at 20 percent, benefits now stop after a year.
:09:58. > :10:03.More and more once middle-class families are falling into poverty.
:10:03. > :10:07.This apartment is home to a book- keeper who has been unemployed
:10:07. > :10:11.since her firm went bust. Her husband is a builder who has had
:10:11. > :10:17.hardly any work in the past two years.
:10:17. > :10:21.They are thousands of Euros in debt. Were it not for the charity their
:10:21. > :10:27.three children would go hungry. Moments of fun like this are rare,
:10:27. > :10:31.but the hep is not just welcomed, it is essential.
:10:31. > :10:37.You have small children, how important is all of this to you?
:10:37. > :10:41.How would you manage without all of this?
:10:41. > :10:47.TRANSLATION: I don't know. We are going through a tough time. My
:10:47. > :10:54.husband is out of work, I'm out of work. We only have my mother's
:10:54. > :10:59.pension of 400 Euros a month. It is not enough.
:10:59. > :11:06.Today I had no food to cook. I didn't know how I was going to feed
:11:06. > :11:11.the children. It's very hard.
:11:11. > :11:17.What is the worst thing about being as poor as you are now?
:11:17. > :11:27.TRANSLATION: It's put a strain on the relationship with my husband.
:11:27. > :11:42.
:11:42. > :11:51.We are like two strangers. TRANSLATION: I remember life under
:11:51. > :12:01.the generals. This is worse. These are not good times to live in.
:12:01. > :12:02.
:12:02. > :12:06.Before there was work, times were different.
:12:06. > :12:10.Sometimes Maria has to send her children to school without food and
:12:10. > :12:14.Greece does not do free school dinners. In the poorest areas the
:12:15. > :12:18.teachers talk of children fainting in the classroom as they are not
:12:18. > :12:23.getting enough to eat, but it is when the children get sick that the
:12:23. > :12:28.real horror of the spending cuts kicks in. Opposite this children's
:12:28. > :12:32.hospital, Konstantina Gavrou runs a pharmacy, but the national fund
:12:32. > :12:37.that supplies the pharmacists is failing. They are losing the battle
:12:37. > :12:40.to buy the drugs that the patients desperately need.
:12:40. > :12:45.It really is the case that children's hospital on the other
:12:45. > :12:49.side of the square from here, there are parents who are being given
:12:49. > :12:54.drugs for their children with cancer and they have to share them
:12:54. > :13:00.with other parents whose children have cancer?
:13:00. > :13:04.TRANSLATION: The parents of these children across the street open a
:13:04. > :13:09.packet of medication and hand them out. This is not candy, this is
:13:09. > :13:13.medicine. Now I blame myself. I don't actually serve the people, I
:13:13. > :13:17.just add to their misery. How will this problem be resolved?
:13:17. > :13:24.The Greek government cannot allow many people to die because they
:13:24. > :13:28.don't get the drugs? Surely? TRANSLATION: We are paying large
:13:28. > :13:33.interest payments while children at school don't have books, now they
:13:33. > :13:39.have no medicines, something is not right.
:13:39. > :13:43.What Foreign Secretary does this have on you as somebody who has
:13:43. > :13:50.been a pharmacist for some years now, made your life as a
:13:50. > :13:53.pharmacist? Actually this I can say in English... I cannot sleep.
:13:53. > :13:59.During the night I'm feeling terrible.
:13:59. > :14:04.I don't know if it is my fault and how I can solve this problem, but
:14:04. > :14:10.when I wake up in the morning I realise that this is not from me
:14:10. > :14:12.but I have to find a solution as a Dina Kriara works in the pharmacy
:14:12. > :14:15.dispensing medicines. But there's a vicious irony here. She herself has
:14:15. > :14:21.a potentially fatal heart problem and despite being surrounded by
:14:21. > :14:25.drugs, she struggles to obtain the ones she needs. TRANSLATION: Even
:14:25. > :14:35.as we speak, I haven't had my medications for this month. I can't
:14:35. > :14:35.
:14:35. > :14:41.live without them. I need them. you frightened? Yes, I am very
:14:41. > :14:46.Pharmacies without medicines, schools without books and families
:14:46. > :14:52.without food. Greece is failing against these fundamental measures
:14:52. > :14:57.of civilisation. Will this really be the country in which my
:14:57. > :15:04.grandchildren will grow up? Where some say it's even worse than it
:15:04. > :15:10.was under the generals? How can The public coffers are empty, yet
:15:10. > :15:19.vast private wealth remains evident here. But just try getting the rich
:15:19. > :15:25.If the myth of Midas serves as one useful metaphor for what's happened
:15:25. > :15:27.to Greece, the myth of Sisyphus might serve as another. He's the
:15:27. > :15:31.bloke, you'll remember, who was given the job of rolling the
:15:31. > :15:35.boulder up the hill and every time he got anywhere near the top, it
:15:35. > :15:40.rolled right back down again. Diomidis Spinellis can relate to
:15:40. > :15:45.that. He's a professor of software engineering and he was asked by the
:15:45. > :15:47.Greek government to help get people to pay their taxes. He designed a
:15:47. > :15:55.system to identify potential evaders, particularly among the
:15:55. > :15:58.very rich. When I started in 2009, I was extremely optimistic. I saw a
:15:58. > :16:02.number of low-hanging fruit I thought I can just grab them and
:16:02. > :16:06.it's a done deal. Because you see people, for instance, having flashy
:16:06. > :16:09.cars. Why shouldn't they have a flashy tax return, indicating that
:16:09. > :16:13.they are doing their bit to help the state? But when Spinellis told
:16:13. > :16:15.the government and the tax offices what was going on, nothing happened.
:16:15. > :16:25.Exasperated, he designed a second programme to monitor the tax
:16:25. > :16:27.collectors themselves. They didn't like that. Some wanted to guard the
:16:27. > :16:33.corrupt culture of kickbacks with which they feathered their own
:16:33. > :16:35.nests. Spinellis was sued by the tax collectors' union. If the tax
:16:35. > :16:42.collectors themselves don't accept that things are so badly wrong and
:16:42. > :16:45.must be changed, how will it ever be changed? By the end of my term I
:16:45. > :16:50.was considering that the exisiting system cannot be changed gradually
:16:50. > :16:55.in such a way. It would have been better to create a new tax
:16:55. > :16:58.collection authority. So you wanted an earthquake in effect. You wanted
:16:58. > :17:03.to blow the whole thing up and start again and what we've seen is
:17:03. > :17:07.a tremor. I think an earthquake is needed in order to bring the system
:17:07. > :17:11.under control. It would bring a great amount of revenue, in the
:17:11. > :17:15.order of 10 billion euros. In other words, it would make a significant
:17:15. > :17:25.contribution to ending the crisis that Greece is in now. Yes, it
:17:25. > :17:25.
:17:25. > :17:28.would. But it's not happening. Seeing the way Greece has been
:17:28. > :17:32.governed by the two main parties over the years reminds me of the
:17:32. > :17:36.way some of the worst local councils in Britain were run when I
:17:36. > :17:40.was a young reporter. But this is a country with an ancient history,
:17:40. > :17:48.strategically important, whose future matters to all of us. Can it
:17:48. > :17:50.One man who benefitted from the Greek boom is Konstantine Michalos.
:17:50. > :17:57.He's an influential businessmen and now President of the Chambers of
:17:57. > :18:01.Commerce. Where is the evidence that the Greek people are prepared
:18:01. > :18:05.to say, "OK, we will do things differently from now on?" First of
:18:05. > :18:08.all, let's get one thing right. This is not a Greek crisis and I
:18:08. > :18:13.think that this has been proved very clearly over the last few
:18:13. > :18:16.months when we've seen economic powers such as Italy or Spain...
:18:16. > :18:21.It's not exclusively a Greek crisis, I will grant you that, but you are
:18:21. > :18:28.in an enormous mess. Yes, I will agree that Greece is responsible
:18:28. > :18:32.for its own internal affairs. We didn't use the European funds in
:18:32. > :18:36.the correct way. It was squandered and there was corruption and all
:18:36. > :18:39.the rest of it, so my question remains. How do you change that
:18:39. > :18:42.mentality, what is the evidence that it's changing? By changing the
:18:42. > :18:45.political system in Greece. You cannot possibly convince the Greek
:18:45. > :18:51.people with politicians that are the main reason, the cause that has
:18:51. > :18:54.brought us where we are today. who are totally discredited.
:18:54. > :19:02.Precisely, because those who have brought us to where we are today
:19:02. > :19:06.cannot possibly be expected to be But after last weekend's general
:19:06. > :19:09.election, it's the old guard running the show once again. New
:19:09. > :19:16.Democracy and Pasok in coalition, the very parties who got Greece
:19:16. > :19:21.into this mess over the past four decades. This is a victory for all
:19:21. > :19:28.Europe. I will make sure that the sacrifices of the Greek people will
:19:28. > :19:32.bring the country back to But how much more sacrifice will
:19:32. > :19:37.Greece tolerate? Of those who voted, most were against the austerity
:19:37. > :19:41.package. There's now a powerful opposition in parliament. The left-
:19:41. > :19:46.wing grouping called SYRIZA swore to rip up the bail out plan. They
:19:46. > :19:51.came a close second. And on the extreme right, Golden Dawn cemented
:19:51. > :20:01.the gains they made last time with a worrying 7% of the popular vote.
:20:01. > :20:09.At this rally, Afghan immigrants are protesting against what they
:20:09. > :20:14.They feel they've been made a political scapegoat for the
:20:14. > :20:24.country's troubles. But when Golden Dawn invited us to film them before
:20:24. > :20:29.
:20:29. > :20:39.the election, they tried to sell us Things had got so bad, they said,
:20:39. > :20:40.
:20:40. > :20:47.that little old ladies asked to be I'm scared. They hit me, they pinch.
:20:47. > :20:52.Who are they? Pakistan. Not Greek people. No, no, never. It's not a
:20:52. > :20:59.Greek. And this people, it's all right, when I want to go to the
:20:59. > :21:02.bank they come with me. I don't worry. The Golden Dawn MP, Giani
:21:02. > :21:12.Vouldis, boasted to me that it took his men to rid this neighbourhood
:21:12. > :21:14.
:21:14. > :21:16.TRANSLATION: They asked for Golden Dawn's help so we helped.
:21:16. > :21:23.Eventually there were fewer immigrants and with police
:21:24. > :21:26.assisting in the end, we cleared the square out. What about
:21:26. > :21:36.Pakistanis or Indians or Africans who have come to live in Greece
:21:36. > :21:41.
:21:41. > :21:43.legally? TRANSLATION: There aren't any legal ones, or very few. They
:21:43. > :21:53.pretend they come from countries with internal problems like war,
:21:53. > :22:01.persecution and they stay here creating ghettos. Do you regard
:22:01. > :22:06.fascism as an evil doctrine? things that Hitler did, if we're
:22:06. > :22:10.talking about here in Greece, of course they were bad. On the other
:22:10. > :22:12.hand, history's always written by the winners. You don't believe that
:22:13. > :22:22.Hitler created the ultimate crime against the Jewish people, the
:22:22. > :22:31.crime of genocide? I don't know. You don't know? I don't know, but
:22:31. > :22:33.everyone has the right to Golden Dawn's emergence, in this of
:22:33. > :22:36.all countries, where Nazi occupation survives in living
:22:36. > :22:45.memory, is alarming, but for every choreographed PR stunt like the one
:22:45. > :22:48.I saw, there's been a high-profile media blunder. Like when one of
:22:48. > :22:58.their MPs assaulted a woman on national television and went on the
:22:58. > :22:59.
:22:59. > :23:02.This party now hold 18 seats in the It's not only the far right that's
:23:02. > :23:05.benefitted from this crisis. People distrust conventional politics and
:23:05. > :23:15.the danger is that violence like these street scenes from last
:23:15. > :23:18.
:23:18. > :23:23.The people of Athens are well used to the sight of riot police on
:23:23. > :23:25.their streets. These are a pretty permanent fixture on the border of
:23:25. > :23:31.Athens' Exarcheia neighbourhood, where ordinary police officers no
:23:31. > :23:35.longer patrol because they're nervous of stirring up trouble. I
:23:35. > :23:39.met with a group of young activists here last week. What happened at
:23:39. > :23:45.the election is precisely what they told me they would not tolerate.
:23:45. > :23:50.With half of all under 25s out of work, what they want is revolution.
:23:50. > :23:59.All revolutions are almost always preceded by violence. At what point
:23:59. > :24:07.are young people in Greece going to take to the streets? TRANSLATION:
:24:07. > :24:10.400 euro salaries and unemployment are acts of violence. Under these
:24:10. > :24:15.terms, we advocate an uprising. This is a crisis of capitalism
:24:15. > :24:18.itself. It's a crisis of that system of producing and consuming
:24:18. > :24:28.and I believe that most young people, they try to think of
:24:28. > :24:28.
:24:28. > :24:33.Anger at measures that young people feel have robbed them of their
:24:33. > :24:37.future may well fuel more unrest. And things are not going to get
:24:37. > :24:45.better. A fifth of all public sector workers are set to be laid
:24:45. > :24:54.off - the equivalent of a million So are you saying that this in a
:24:54. > :25:01.way is the lost generation in Greece? For sure. Of course our
:25:01. > :25:08.generation is a generation that have nothing. There are no futures,
:25:08. > :25:13.no jobs, no work, no universities, no public health, nothing. You have
:25:13. > :25:23.just to rise up and fight for some things that we need for living. For
:25:23. > :25:26.The spirit of resistance has never died in Greece. If one man embodies
:25:26. > :25:36.that spirit, it is Manolis Glezos, a national hero who can't walk the
:25:36. > :25:37.
:25:37. > :25:40.He's the man who risked his life tearing down the swastika from the
:25:40. > :25:43.Acropolis in 1943, who fought in the civil war, who was locked up by
:25:43. > :25:53.the military junta, who was elected to the European parliament, and who
:25:53. > :25:56.
:25:56. > :25:59.is still fighting, still And still in tune with the people
:25:59. > :26:05.of Greece in his loathing of what everyone here calls the troika, the
:26:05. > :26:09.EU, the European Central Bank and the IMF. They are seen as the
:26:09. > :26:19.oppressors. And at the heart of the troika is, of course, the old enemy,
:26:19. > :26:21.
:26:21. > :26:28.Germany. I met Mr Glezos before the TRANSLATION: Of course today
:26:28. > :26:36.there's no occupation. Are German soldiers here? No. But the German
:26:36. > :26:43.mentality prevails. The Greek people are not responsible for the
:26:43. > :26:47.crisis. It was caused by the financial system. The Greeks didn't
:26:47. > :26:49.fuel it, yet they were forced by the troika and its agents to stump
:26:49. > :26:59.up, to cut pensions, benefits and salaries, all that they've gained
:26:59. > :27:09.
:27:09. > :27:12.so far. But many people on the outside, in Germany, in Britain and
:27:12. > :27:15.many other countries, look at Greece and say it is at least
:27:15. > :27:22.partly the fault of the Greek people because they haven't paid
:27:22. > :27:26.their taxes. They wanted the good life without paying the bills.
:27:26. > :27:29.Greek people pay their taxes. It's big capital that doesn't pay tax,
:27:29. > :27:39.the bankers don't pay tax, the financial institutions don't pay
:27:39. > :27:42.
:27:42. > :27:47.This country has suffered three great crises just in my life time.
:27:47. > :27:49.Nazi occupation, civil war, military dictatorship. It overcame
:27:49. > :27:56.all that, embraced democracy and for the last generation, it's
:27:56. > :28:03.enjoyed a period of unprecedented stability and prosperity. The
:28:03. > :28:08.danger of this present crisis is Greece has a new government
:28:08. > :28:11.committed to austerity. It believes there is no alternative. As the
:28:11. > :28:21.cuts bite ever deeper, the people of Greece may take a different view
:28:21. > :28:24.and if they do, it will have Next week, Panorama goes undercover