Greece

“Refugee crisis” in Piraeus

“Refugee crisis” in Piraeus

by Olga Lafazani Piraeus, as the main port connecting the mainland to the islands of the Aegean, has been one of the “hubs” of the massive migration movements that cross Greece since the summer of 2015. People from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere arrive every day in the islands and cross from Piraeus in order(…)

Greece before the eurogroup meeting

On Sunday A.Tsipras announced the basic goals of the program of the new government. Alexis Tsipras: Excerpts from programmatic statements in the Greek Parliament. All these three days there is a continues discussion in the parliament and today, at about midnight, the government will ask for the vote of confidence of the parliament in order(…)

ECB decision on greek bonds

by Olga Lafazani ECB decided no longer to accept Greek government bonds as collateral for lending money to commercial banks. It is a way to put pressure (or even threaten) the new Greek government to discipline with Troika and memorandum terms signed by the previous governments. For more see: ECB cancels soft treatment of Greek(…)

Moments from Greece pre- and after the elections /1

by Olga Lafazani 22.01.2015 Things in Athens are really interesting these last days before the elections. There is an open “war” against Syriza from all the other parties, emphasizing mainly on “fear”: they are presenting the possible election of Syriza as the worst thing that can happen to the country, salaries and pensions won’t be(…)

Instead of promises, instead of thanking you

From the first interview of the new Minister of Economy , Yanis Varoufakis: A few days before the elections I was interviewed by a journalist from Spain who was accompanied, as usual, by a Greek assistant. During the interview the assistant didn’t say anything but was listening very carefully. After the end of the discussion,(…)

“Moments” from the new Greek Goverment

To celebrate his election in the parliament, the known economist Kostas Lapavitsas is singing the song of the National Liberation Front (EAM), a very strong and symbolic song for the Left in Greece since the civil war. Alexis Tsipras, right after he is appointed as a prime minister of the country and before arriving in(…)