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Illiberal Conservatism Comes to Greece

Under cover of the pandemic, Greece’s right-wing government has passed a slew of new measures to benefit the wealthy at the expense of workers, while massively expanding police powers. On the back of a decade of austerity, the latest laws are set to transform the country into a client state and playground for foreign tourists.
 
by Matthaios Tsimitakis/Mihalis Panayiotakis 
 
Part 4 - The COVID-19 Doctrine

Politically, the response to this crisis has been a mix of nationalism, authoritarian rule, and neoliberal economic reforms — ingredients embedded in New Democracy’s clientelist politics and multilayered graft, and sold at every level by the mainstream media. The result is a potent hybrid of social conservatism and right-wing economic liberalism. As the lockdowns have confined people to their homes, the government has been granted the perfect cover for a shock therapy that aims to reengineer Greece in an even more inegalitarian manner.

A slew of new legislation passed during the lockdown is set to reshape the country: protected natural areas are to be mined, the electric grid operator will be privatized, large tax offenders are to be granted amnesty. What’s more,  education laws reforms are set to benefit private schools to the detriment of public ones and a notorious new law will install police on campuses in an effort to intimidate and obstruct the politicization of students. As always, even more, “labor flexibility” is being legislated precisely at the same moment that real unemployment is expected to reach 20 percent amid the recession caused by the pandemic.

The unimaginatively named Greece 2.0 program provides the framework for these reforms, utilizing €57.5 billion in investments to be funded by the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Facility, along with private capital, to create a neoliberal playground with new self-inflicted IMF-style “reforms,” applauded by the usual suspects.

This authoritarian-cum-neoliberal Gleichschaltung is still in full effect, utilizing curfews, hiding in minimal press coverage, and taking advantage of parliamentary dysfunction to pass stealthily through transformative measures.

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