I wish my Greek friends well today. Whilst I have huge reservations about Syriza, which is essentially at least 57 varieties of Trots and others from the hard left, I can’t say that I wouldn’t vote for them if I was Greek.
I am by nature nearer PASOK, the soft left party of Greece, but I am also convinced that Europe, the world, has had enough of austerity. Although the effects of the financial meltdown are not quite so obvious on the islands, on the mainland things are awful. Homelessness, suicide, mass youth unemployment, thousands without basic medical cover, people unable to heat or even feed themselves, and all because of something they had nothing to do with.
If you think our politicians are held in low esteem, you should listen to the Greeks talking about theirs. The anger and cynicism is palpable. They are in it for themselves, they have been the financial beneficiaries whilst everyone else has suffered and they are completely and utterly corrupt. And when you ask for evidence, they name names, give examples. Greek politics is broken.
Most people I spoke to in Corfu last week regard the election as irrelevant to them and something mainly for the mainland population but they understand why Syriza will win. Things, they feel, could simply not be any worse under Syriza. The middle class has all but been killed off. What have they got to lose? If you can’t afford light, heating and food, then how could things get worse?
People in Greek return to their own villages and towns to vote, which probably explains why the morning flight yesterday from Athens to Corfu was full and the return flight, which I was on, was 80% empty. They are not going into this election with their eyes closed. They really have had enough of austerity which, they strongly believe, hasn’t worked and has made things worse.
Austerity in Greece, as in everywhere else, affects the working classes, the sick, the unemployed and the old, although the middle class has taken an enormous hit too. The perception, as it is here, is that those of the top have been immune from its effects as Cameron and Osborne, aided and abetted by the useful idiots of Clegg’s Liberal Democrats, have piled almost all the misery on those who have the least.
Today, the Greeks have a great opportunity to begin a fightback and on balance I hope they seize it with both hands.
