With youth unemployment at 50%, the elderly losing their assets and ever-growing numbers going hungry, you don’t need to wander far on the streets of Athens to witness the impact of Greece’s debt crisis.
“All the rulers are dirty” cries one man as he awaits his turn at the local food distribution centre.”What else are those thieves going to take? They’ve stolen everything.” It is this level of desperation that is felt across the debt-stricken country. A once-thriving shipping trade has virtually vanished, with queues of former workers lining the streets for the chance of a last minute shift. Tourism too is under threat. With all these difficulties, it is not hard to find a growing anti-European sentiment from its people. As one man argues, “they prefer to watch people eat from the garbage. The EU is simply a union of corporations and banks”.