southeastern europe

This is a true story ... A story that sometime ago I would have thought was part of some sort of dystopian fiction. As time passes, I cannot shake away the feeling that it increasingly looks and feels like a nightmare that returns night after night with more intensity and power and from which one finds it more and more difficult to wake up.  It happened at Ayios Ilias, part of a long stretch of sand dunes on the west coast of the Peloponnese, just over eight weeks ago, on what would have otherwise simply been just another hot sunny summer day. The beach - a popular destination for groups of young people and families seeking a quiet place by the sea to spend their summer days, was fairly crowded. Built at the point where the sand dunes met the road, the local tavern was also crowded with companies having a late lunch after a day at the beach. In the midst of the terrace, one could see a group of six men in their thirties, all dressed in black. I did not pay much attention at ...

a note on the May 6, 2012 Greek elections appeared in Diplomaatia Elections in Greece by Spyros A.Sofos Instead of the traditional left-right division, Greek political landscape is increasingly divided according to the parties’ attitudes towards austerity measures. On May 6, just less than six months after the coalition government of technocrat Lucas Papademos succeeded that of beleaguered prime minister George Papandreou in order to initiate the reforms agreed at the Eurozone summit on October 26, 2011, Greek voters went to the polls to elect a new parliament and government against a rather gloomy backdrop. The path to the polls The sovereign debt crisis had exacerbated the contraction of the economy and the increase of unemployment (now affecting one in every three young people). The desperate attempts of the last Panhellenic Socialist Movement  (PASOK) and the subsequent tripartite coalition government to raise revenues through hastily concocted ...