Tassos Symeonides, Ph.D.
(Academic Advisor)
Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 1 November 2015
NATIONAL OVERVIEW
In 2016 Greece will enter the sixth year of the debt crisis. The Greeks economy shows no sign of revival. Socially, Greece has experienced an unprecedented collapse that continues unabated. Unemployment remains above 25 percent, with the government massaging the figures at will to prove otherwise. The average family has lost at least 40 percent of its pre-crisis income. The internal devaluation, forced upon the country by Europe and the IMF, has caused a catastrophic collapse in property values. Politically, the situation remains brittle. The Syriza government has lost its claimed identity as a "radical left" party since it accepted the third bailout in July 2015, which is now universally recognized as another debacle and an exercise of "kicking the can down the road." Opposition parties are in disarray, save the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn, and disabled as alternatives to the Syriza government...Read more