The Agora

The leaders of Greece’s three main parties have set out their policies, but also the political parameters, that will define next year’s elections.

So, what are the key issue at stake and what will decide the outcome of the vote, or more likely votes, that are due to take place in 2023?

Co-hosts Nick Malkoutzis and Phoebe Fronista discuss what we can take away from the appearances made by the leaders of the three leading parties at the Thessaloniki International Fair in September.

MacroPolis co-founder Yiannis Mouzakis and features editor Georgia Nakou join the discussion to look at the political and economic developments which will underpin the election campaign, ponder the permutations that will decide who will govern Greece next and muse about how many ballots will be needed to produce a workable result.

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Like so many other countries, Greece is feeling the impact of the Ukraine war in many ways, whether this is through spiralling energy costs, turbulence in the global economy, a shifting geopolitical balance or the flow of refugees into the country.

In this episode of The Agora, we take a closer look at the reverberations from Ukraine being felt across Greece.

More than 40,000 Ukrainian refugees have come to Greece since the Russian invasion began in February, six months ago. Over a quarter of those were children. Phoebe Fronista speaks to Khrystyna Kobyliak, an aspiring yoga entrepreneur from Ukraine, who came to Athens with her 6-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son in March to find out more about their experience of seeking refuge from the war in her homeland.

In the second half of the show, Nick Malkoutzis speaks to Wolfango Piccoli, the co-President & Director of Research at Teneo, the global consulting and advisory firm, about the various ways in which Greece has been affected by the fallout from the conflict in Ukraine and how things may play out in the months ahead, especially in terms of relations with Turkey.

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Greece’s socialist party, PASOK, was the powerhouse of Greek politics since the early 1980s. However, the debt crisis that emerged from 2009 sucked the life out of the centre-left grouping. Its share of the vote fell from 44 pct that year to roughly a tenth of that in 2015 as PASOK became a toxic political brand.

Recently, though, the party has been making something of a comeback. It elected a new leader, MEP Nikos Androulakis, at the end of last year and has seen its poll ratings increase to such an extent that it is being talked about as a potential kingmaker or coalition partner in the next government.

In the last few days, party members voted to reinstate the party’s traditional name, PASOK, alongside the Movement for Change (KINAL) moniker it had gone under for the last few years.

With national elections due in the next 12 months, The Agora podcast takes a closer look at PASOK’s return to the centre stage and what this means for Greek politics.

Phoebe Fronista speaks to Irene Kostaki, a former journalist who is now working as a political advisor on EU affairs to Androulakis to find out more about how revitalised the party is and what plans it has.

Nick Malkoutzis speaks to political scientist Elias Dinas, currently the Swiss Chair in Federalism, Democracy and International Governance at the European University Institute in Florence, about the political landscape in Greece, the new cleavages that have formed and how PASOK’s revival fits into the broader picture.

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Following a deadly attack on a 19-year-old football fan in Thessaloniki in early February, the Greek government has announced new measures aimed at reining in hooliganism.

However, we've been here before in Greece. So, will the latest measures actually make any difference or are they just a knee-jerk, ineffective reaction to a problem that needs a much wider, consistent approach?

We start by asking whether Greece's thinking and methods when addressing sports-related violence are outdated. We spoke to Professor Geoff Pearson, a senior lecturer in criminal law at the University of Manchester, to get a better understanding of how this issue is addressed elsewhere. Geoff is an expert in hooliganism, crowd management and policing.

To discuss Greek football's particular ailments, we spoke to Alexandros Kottis, a freelance journalist based in Athens working for AFP and Courier International, among others. 

He recently wrote an article for the BBC about the sad state of Greek football.

Useful links

Professor Geoff Pearson's publications

The infinite chaos of Greek football: How the latest hope for change was lost by Alexandros Kottis

Alexandros's "Supporters" photo project - https://www.facebook.com/Supporters-1784346485175846/

Alkis Kampanos, a 19-year-old Greek football fan murdered for supporting the wrong team - The Athletic

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Greece recently received the first six state-of-the art fighter jets it has ordered from France, hoping that their arrival marks the start of an upgrade of its military capabilities, but also an improvement in its geopolitical standing.

The Rafale planes - of which Greece is expecting another 18 - touched down in Greece to much fanfare and excitement. This episode of The Agora examines whether this pomp and circumstance is deserved and how their arrival fits into the broader diplomatic picture.

Co-host Phoebe Fronista was there to greet the aircraft and tells us about what she saw and heard. Nick Malkoutzis speaks to MacroPolis foreign policy analyst Alexandra Voudouri and Yiannis Ioannou, co-founder of Geopolitical Cyprus, about the Rafales and the other key developments in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Useful links

Greece receives ‘game-changer’ Rafale aircraft from France - Al Jazeera

Greece receives six French fighter jets as part of €11.5bn military overhaul - The Guardian

The France-Greece alliance and EastMed geopolitics - Geopolitical Cyprus

EastMed: A pipeline project that ran afoul of geopolitics and green policies - Politico

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The Greek economy is back in focus on this episode of The Agora as we take a peak at the 2022 budget and a closer look at broader trends and challenges.

MacroPolis co-founder Yiannis Mouzakis provides a whistlestop tour of the budget, explaining its key elements and what obstacles the Greek government's economic plan could encounter next year.

Two men with extensive knowledge of the Greek economy, Bob Traa and Jens Bastian, join us for a broad discussion about causes for optimism, but also reasons to be cautious as 2022 beckons, including low productivity, high unemployment and limited prospects at home for young Greeks.

Bob was the IMF’s senior representative in Greece at the outset of the economic crisis, between 2010 and 2013. He has also written a book about the country's economic challenges (more below).

Jens is a senior policy adviser at the ELIAMEP think-tank in Athens. He also works an independent economic analyst.

Mentioned on this episode:

The series of articles by Bob & Jens for MacroPolis: https://www.macropolis.gr/?i=portal.en.the-agora&t=46

Bob Traa's book: https://www.amazon.com/Macroeconomy-Greece-Odysseus-Journey-Sustainability/dp/B089CSJCL4

Bob's article on migration shifts in the EU: https://www.macropolis.gr/?i=portal.en.the-agora.11150

Jens's publications for ELIAMEP: https://www.eliamep.gr/en/members/jens-bastian/

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In the wake of the COP26 meeting, The Agora analyses what Greece brought to the discussion and how this tallies with the efforts being made on the ground to tackle the climate crisis.

The head of policy at WWF Greece, Theodota Nantsou, evaluates the Greek authorities' actions.

With the help of journalist Evridiki Bersi, we also take a closer look at wind power and why there are concerns about how this form of renewable energy is being expanded in Greece.

First, though, we start with a look back at this summer's devastating wildfires in Greece. Documentary photographer Thodoris Nikolaou tells us what he witnessed in northern Evia, which suffered the most extensive destruction in August.

Show notes:

Kyriakos Mitsotakis at COP26: https://youtu.be/iBvhVsb5WTk

Evridiki's article on wind power for Reporters United: https://www.reportersunited.gr/en/6557/too-much-of-a-good-thing-wind-power-and-the-battle-for-greeces-wild-heart/

Thodoris's feature on the Evia wildfires for News247: Η καμένη Εύβοια είναι οι άνθρωποί της (news247.gr)

WWF Greece's reaction to PM's COP26 speech: https://www.wwf.gr/ta_nea_mas/?uNewsID=4998416

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The outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel was a ubiquitous figure during the Greek crisis, often making her a target for the frustrations generated by the austerity policies she and her party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), advocated.

Some of that is water under the bridge now and her recent visit to Athens was accompanied by compliments and diplomatic niceties.

As she continues her farewell tour, before a coalition led by the Social Democratic Party (SPD) assumes power in Berlin, we look back at the legacy of Merkel’s rocky relationship with Greece, during which she dealt with six different Greek Prime Ministers, and where it leaves ties between Berlin and Athens.

Input comes from the head of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation’s (KAS) office in Athens, Henri-Giscard Bohnet, and Christos Katsioulis, who was in charge of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation’s (FES) office in the Greek capital between 2012 and 2017, at the height of Greece’s economic crisis.

Useful links:

Konrad Adenaeur Foundation Office, Greece: https://www.kas.de/en/web/griechenland

Friedrich Ebert Foundation Office, Greece: https://athens.fes.de/gr/gia-mas/to-fes-stin-ellada

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Greece recently signed two major defence deals, one with France and another with the USA. On this episode, Nick Malkoutzis and Phoebe Fronista examine the significance and implications of these agreements.

MacroPolis foreign policy analyst Alexandra Voudouri explains why we should take note of these pacts, which include the purchase of at least three new French frigates. Alexandra also looks at some of the criticism about the accords and takes a broader look at the direction of Greek foreign policy.

When signing both defence agreements, Athens clearly had its relations with Turkey in mind. To get a better understanding of how these developments have gone down in Turkey, Nick spoke to Aydin Selcen, an Istanbul-based commentator and former diplomat.

Also, Turkish journalist and writer Mehves Evin spoke to The Agora about the domestic difficulties troubling President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and how this may feed into Ankara's actions in the Aegean and beyond.

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Earlier this month, Greece lost one of the most emblematic figures of its modern era, composer Mikis Theodorakis, who died on September 2 at the age of 96.

Theodorakis was a multi-talented and multi-faceted figure who left his mark due to his radical politics and public interventions as well as his ground-breaking music, which blended Greek popular sounds with classic elements.

On this show, we take a closer look at the influence of this prolific, towering figure. Phoebe Fronista speaks to Dr Panos Stavrianides, an entrepreneur, educator and active member of the Greek American diaspora about the impact Theodorakis’s music and political stance had on him and other Greeks living abroad.

Also, Nick Malkoutzis speaks to Dimitris A. Sotiropoulos, a Professor of Political Science at the University of Athens and senior research fellow at the ELIAMEP think-tank, about what impact Theodorakis had on the public sphere and shaping modern Greece’s identity. Their discussion also touches on whether the composer’s passing marks the end of the public intellectual in Greece, and whether this matters.

This episode also is interspersed with Theodrakis’s music, much of which is played by the Mandragoras group in Frankfurt, Germany and Achilleas and Nino Anastasiades.

Mandragoras: https://www.facebook.com/groups/mandragoras.hannover/

Achilleas and Nino Anastasiades: https://www.youtube.com/user/achanast/featured

More background on Theodorakis

BBC documentary by Maria Margaronis: Mikis Theodorakis Remembered: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct2pty

The Guardian obituary by Gail Holst-Warhaft: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/sep/02/mikis-theodorakis-obituary

Mikis, a Greek for all by Nikos Konstandaras: https://www.ekathimerini.com/opinion/1167289/mikis-a-greek-for-all/

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