Post-Easter Reflections
Dear reader,
This is our weekly round-up from Greece. It has indeed been a slow week. And we decided to share the full newsletter with you as a post - Easter gift.
It’s less than a month before the European elections, and Greek political leaders have engaged in a “dogfight” on TikTok. It's not quite what you would expect with so many issues on the table.
It might be sunny in Greece, but how bright is life for locals? An extensive survey found Greeks are quite depressed about their present life and pessimistic about the future.
While crowds flooded the streets of the Eurovision hosting city Malmo to protest Israel’s participation, within the contest, any expressions of solidarity to the Palestinians were erased from public sight. The yawning of the Greek performer Satti during her Israeli counterpart’s interview has even caused the intervention of the Greek government, who felt they should apologize.
“Dogfight” between Kasselakis and Mitsotakis on TikTok for the European Elections
Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Stefanos Kasselakis continue to invest in communication, posting videos on TikTok with an eye on the European elections. There has also been some political confrontation between the two leaders regarding the upcoming European elections on TikTok.
Both political figures are using videos on TikTok to communicate their messages. Mitsotakis posted a video featuring his dog, Peanu (Opens in a new window)t, humorously dubbed as a "Euro-party dog," which was met with a response from Kasselakis featuring his own dog, Farli, criticizing Mitsotakis for using his pet to attract votes (Opens in a new window). Kasselakis remarked that, unlike his opponent, he does not need to resort to such tactics to win votes, expressing genuine affection for his dog.
Additionally, Nikos Androulakis is mentioned as having participated in TikTok videos as well, albeit without a dog, (Opens in a new window) suggesting a humorous sidelight on the political use of social media.
How do Greeks see the country ten years from now?
The Greeks have no gloomy perspective on the future, according to an extensive survey published by Dianeosis.
The survey (Opens in a new window) initially asked the participants to pick the two greatest threats to the future of the Greeks. Almost one out of two said it’s primarily the country's financial situation. The people who said the same in December 2019 were half this percentage. The demographic problem was identified as the second threat (36.7%), while one out of five said it’s climate change. However, when asked to pick the two biggest threats to the planet’s future, half said it’s climate change - and then inequality and financial hardship received some 40%.
A clue to the demographic problem could be if you combine the previous answers with what participants said about children. They appeared to have 1,4 kids on average but would like to have 2,6 kids on average. What prevented them?
One more hint: When asked which are young people's most significant problems, 41.1% think it’s low wages, followed by unemployment (39.6%) and the professional future, along with social insurance (36.2%).
How will Greece be in ten years from now? That’s another question the participants had to answer. Some 83.3% agreed there will be many migrants in the country and 63.3% said citizens will be more tolerant towards diversity. On the other hand, only 34% believe that the living standards will have converged with the European ones, only 26.1% believe that Greece will be financially strong, and a mere 23.2% believe that there will be meritocracy. There is, however, some 40% that think the country will increase its international leverage - that is, despite its precarious financial situation and the lack of meritocracy.
A very important aspect, which, however, can already be deducted from the aspects above, has to do with feelings (Opens in a new window). Half of the participants say they feel insecure. Then, 44.3% feel disappointed, 29.7% feel angry. Optimism, the first positive feeling, appears only fourth on the list with 21.7%. The survey noted that women tend to pick negative feelings more often than men.
Reflections on the occasion of the Eurovision song contest
In this slow week, the Eurovision Song Contest predominated the public debate.
The official motto of the 68th edition of Eurovision is “united by music.” Still, given the Israeli war on Gaza, it’s highly unlikely that the event has managed to build bridges - or to be “no political,” as it claims.
In previous years, an occupying country, Russia, has been banned for the very reason of invading another country, Ukraine, from the Eurovision. Also, back then, Ukraine’s song won the competition.
This year, despite the war on Gaza, Israel participated in the European song contest. At the same time, all reactions in solidarity with the occupied people, the Palestinians, are either confronted with hostility, suppressed, or just ‘eliminated’ from our screens.
Greece’s performer Marina Satti appeared to mimic falling asleep when Israeli performer Golan was asked a question by the Israeli press. This was interpreted as a mild way of protest.
Satti’s reaction has fuelled a ‘war’ in social media in the country, with some attacking her and others defending her or saying the reaction was too mild.
Interestingly, the Greek government reacted to Marina’s yawning. They expressed dissatisfaction with Satti’s stance. Not only that, but they conveyed this to national broadcaster ERT, asking them to pass the message on to the Israeli press and delegation in the Eurovision, according (Opens in a new window) to TO VIMA newspaper.
Meanwhile, Satti made a statement (Opens in a new window) that said: “She did not mean to insult anyone.”
So, some took offense by a yawn but not by the thousands of civilian deaths in Gaza, including thousands of children.
Interestingly, last week, it was reported (Opens in a new window) that Israeli security forces arrested the guard of the Greek consul from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre during the orthodox celebration of Holy Saturday. He was later set free (Opens in a new window).
The Greek authorities, who had been quick to apologize to Israel’s delegation and journalists for Satti’s yawning, did not make a statement about the arrest of the Greek consul.
PS: Satti has made more implicit statements of solidarity (Opens in a new window) with the Palestinians. On Wednesday, when she was backstage, she was wearing a Trashy Clothing outfit - as she mentioned on social media. Trashy Clothing is a Palestinian brand. On Friday, she posted five watermelon emoji on Instagram. Watermelon symbolizes Palestine on social media as it bears the colours of its flag.
Read
Turkey formally opens the magnificent Church of Chora as a mosque (Opens in a new window)
Conversion of Church of Chora into a mosque was unnecessary, says Greek PM (Opens in a new window)
Court of Appeals to review Mati fire disaster sentences (Opens in a new window)
Number of wildfires in Greece 22% higher since start of 2024 (Opens in a new window)
Easter firecrackers injure 7, boy had fingers amputated (Opens in a new window)
Yanis Varoufakis sues the German state (Opens in a new window)
Athens is an emerging center of wealth (Opens in a new window)
Albanian man dead in “mafia-style” shooting in Athens suburb (Opens in a new window)
British teenager on Crete holiday files “rape” complaint to police (Opens in a new window)
Tourism season in Greece starts with 80,000 job vacancies (Opens in a new window)
Greece to bring in Egyptian farm workers amid labor shortage (Opens in a new window)
Plan Ahead
Piano in Athens: 100 concerts in public & private spaces, May 16-20 (Opens in a new window)
Athens Street Food Festival opens its gates on 3 May weekends (Opens in a new window)
Red Arrows aerobatic team to perform in south Athens, May 18 (Opens in a new window)
That’s all for this week; please forward this email to anyone you think might find it interesting and ask them to join our international community!
The AL team
