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Better to die from a bullet than working: That is the mantra of pampered, lazy Greek rioters used to living off the state
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A red circled capital A – the international sign of anarchy – marks the door of the headquarters of the Anarchist Party at a university in Athens. Inside the lights are on, but nobody is home.
Demetra, a ‘conservative’ student, tells me her anarchist classmates are rarely in before mid-afternoon.
‘They like to sleep when they’re not being anarchists,’ she explains wryly.
Every inch of their base is sprayed with anti-capitalist and anti-state graffiti.
There are pictures showing pigs dressed as riot police beating downtrodden workers.
The usual thing. But one catches the eye: ‘Better to die from a bullet than from working.’
Demetra laughs with embarrassment. My middle-aged taxi driver Vasilis does not find it so funny and tells me this lies at the heart of the whole crisis that Greece finds itself in.
It is a country that’s not working hard enough and suffers from a bloated, money-devouring state and a mentality that the state owes them a living.
Vasilis is angry, not just at the politicians for bringing Greece to its knees, but at public-sector workers who are refusing to change.
Greece feels very much like Britain at the start of Thatcher’s economic revolution 30 years ago.
Greek politicians say there is no alternative but bankruptcy. The public sector and unions are up in arms.
Vasilis, who works 12 hours a day as a driver and earns less than €1,000 (£860) a month, says: ‘Imagine a restaurant earning €1million a year, but it spends €10million to stay open.
'That restaurant is called Greece. Too many of today’s generation are lazy, corrupt. They like to sit in the sun and drink ouzo.
'They want the state to pay. That’s why we’re in this mess.’
Last week, Athens was brought to a standstill as 30,000 protesters, including a small, violent hardcore of black-hooded anarchists, took to the streets to protest against measures that will cut public spending by £25billion over the next few years.
Read more: [link to www.dailymail.co.uk]
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