GRBailout18ATHENS, Greece – After eight years, Greece is slated to rejoin the international economy when it’s European bailouts officially end on Aug. 21.

“Greece will now become a regular country,” Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said in Athens recently in a speech marking the end of the $305 billion rescue dating from the Eurozone crisis. “It will get back its political and economic sovereignty. With the agreement on the Greek debt, the country is finally turning a new page and moves on a new period, where austerity will every day be substituted by social justice.”

After teetering on bankruptcy in 2009 amid the financial crisis and ensuing recession, and government spending that had been rising since Athens hosted the 2004 Olympics, Greek debt has stabilized at $402 billion, or 180 percent of gross domestic product, up from 109 percent before the crisis started, according to analysts.

But many Greeks aren’t celebrating.

Greece’s creditors – the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund – forced Tsipras to hike taxes and cut pensions, social welfare benefits and other public investments.

Unemployment is 20 percent, up from 12 percent when the crisis started, and more than double that for those under 35. One out of three Greeks now live under the poverty line. From a $414 billion economy – close to that of Washington State – Greece's GDP is now $227 billion, a 45 percent decrease.

“The celebration for the end of the crisis for us, young people, is like we’re being administered a placebo,” said Eleni Polydorou, a 24-year-old unemployed video producer who has never had a full-time job. “It’s a moment of optimism that you know isn’t real. We’ll still be living in conditions dictated by the bailout agreements and austerity.”

With half of Greece’s youth out of work, Polydorou is desperate. She’s been sending out many resumes and gets the same canned response: she shouldn’t expect a lot of money.

“Most jobs don’t pay anymore,” said Polydorou. “That’s why many young people leave the country.”

With elections slated for next year, the government is promising jobs and economic reforms to help. Many are skeptical.

Dimitris Charalambis, a political scientist who recently retired from the University of Athens after 35 years of teaching, knows austerity all too well. His salary shrunk by 40 percent. He fears he’ll soon be seeing cuts in his pension.

“Pension cuts are obviously unfair, especially for us who've spent so many years working in such a crucial sector, like education,” he said. “Now, we have to live at risk of poverty.”

The future feels gloomy, some say, because of the June agreement between Greece and its creditors. The Mediterranean country will have to achieve a 3.5 percent surplus until 2022 and a 2 percent surplus until 2060. Such high surpluses are difficult even for oil-producing countries to achieve for 40 years in a row, said Charalambis.

The accord requires the government to cut spending to reach that ambitious surplus, which could lead officials to cut pensions. Delays in payments to contractors and pensions account for this year’s surplus, Charalambis said. While he waits for his pension to arrive in the coming months, he has no other income.

Average incomes are down to $11,400 compared to $52,190 nine years ago.

Today, Greeks make 67 percent of what their European counterparts earn. As a result, almost half of Greeks struggle to pay their home loans, compared to the 5 percent who did before the crisis started. Foreclosures have become normal.

“The bank tried twice to kick us out of our home,” said 56-year-old former electrician Vasilis Skopelitis, who recently suffered a heart attack. “The first time they came, they saw me enraged and got scared and left. The second time, solidarity groups showed up in our doorstep and in order to avoid any media attention, they left again.”

Skopelitis describes how before the crisis, Greek banks gave him, his wife and his children all sorts of loans, for example, $150,000 to buy and renovate a house. His children then lost their jobs, couldn’t pay their loans, lost their homes and moved back in with him and his wife.

Today, they’re all unemployed and they all live under Skopelitis’ roof. They now survive on $584 worth of his monthly pension benefits.

“I paid every single installment when I had a job and until the crisis started,” said Skopelitis, referring to taxes and pension payments. “Now, what should we pay first? Food, electricity, or the bank?”

Photo: July 3, 2018 - Athens, Greece - Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in a meeting with EU Commissioner for Economic & Monetary Affairs Pier Moscovici in Athens. Tsipras posted on his official Twitter account that Greece finally managed to end the bailout program succesfully.
Credit: Courtesy of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' official Twitter account. (07/03/18)

Story/photo published date: 08/20/18

A version of this story was published in USA Today.
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