As the eurozone crisis rumbles on, Greece has once again found itself the focus of international attention. RT gave people in Athens a chance to have their say about the mess they are facing. However, is their voice being heard by those in charge?
Greek parties are now struggling to agree who should lead the country after Prime Minister George Papandreou agreed to go. Meanwhile, the EU is demanding that the government commit itself fast to solving the crisis threatening the entire eurozone.
RT set up a camera and microphone on the Syntagma Square which has been the epicenter of so much of the crisis to find out what the Greek people think about it all.
“What I want to ask all the people, is why are Greeks blamed? And I want to ask something else, if all the Europeans know that all this debt cannot be paid back, why did they lend all this money to us? Don’t they want their money back?” – one man asked.
“Greece is a European country and euro is a Greek word. A Greek word,” he underlined.
“It saddens me that right now there is a chance we might lose everything we know in this country. And there is really not much we can do,” said Vicky, a Greek-Canadian living in Greece for ten years.
“The thing with the situation right now in Greece is that we don’t feel really secure about anything – about our salaries, our health. Everybody here thinks that things could be better,” another young woman said.
“There’s something more than disappointment, there’s something more, they’re angry. We don’t know what will happen tomorrow, you can’t plan your life,” a young man told RT.
“I’m 20 years old and I don’t have a job. I have to live with my parents; I don’t have money; I can’t live,” complained a young woman.
However some believe that despite the troubles, it would be better for Greece to stay with euro.
“Because there is a lot of unemployment in Greece now, people in Greece are very skeptical about the euro. I think it’s better that we are in the euro, of course, definitely. But there are some serious problems,” another man said.
“And I hope something can be done so we can save this beautiful country, and be able to pass it on to our grandchildren and the children after that,” concluded Vicky.