{"id":298,"date":"2017-06-24T17:02:38","date_gmt":"2017-06-24T21:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2017\/?p=298"},"modified":"2017-06-29T12:07:49","modified_gmt":"2017-06-29T16:07:49","slug":"there-is-no-light-resign-movement-protests-another-bailout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2017\/there-is-no-light-resign-movement-protests-another-bailout\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThere is no light\u201d: Resign movement protests another bailout"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 676px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-298-1\" width=\"676\" height=\"380\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"http:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2017\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2017\/06\/Protest-short.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2017\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2017\/06\/Protest-short.mp4\">http:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2017\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2017\/06\/Protest-short.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<p>ALICE MAIDEN<\/p>\n<p>JUNE 24, 2017<\/p>\n<p>ATHENS, Greece \u2014 One man waved a Greek flag. Others chanted and held aloft banners. Photographers rushed across Syntagma Square to capture the sun-washed scene in front of the Parliament building &#8212; so many that the photographers often outnumbered the activists.<\/p>\n<p>A week earlier, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had signed a financial recovery agreement with the International Monetary Fund. For Greeks already struggling to avoid poverty, the deal meant more austerity measures\u2014exactly what the so-called Resign movement argued Tsipras had promised to fight.<\/p>\n<p>The movement\u2019s demonstration on Tuesday \u2013 aimed at convincing the leftist government to step down \u2013 was calm but lively. By nightfall, bodies filled the square and their chants gained momentum. People leaned quietly on poles and perched atop walls, smoking and chatting as if at a neighborhood party. Still, some described themselves as angry.<\/p>\n<p>When asked, participants acknowledged that Tsipras and his colleagues were unlikely to heed their demands.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don&#8217;t expect them to quit, but we have to show them that we are against their politics,\u201d said Stella Brokalaki, 39. \u201cIt&#8217;s not only what they do for the economy. It&#8217;s the whole system. They don&#8217;t like Europe, they are not for Europe, they are not for human rights.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are leftists. They are not socialists. And they are totally incapable,\u201d Brokalaki said in her sometimes bumpy English. \u201cThey were just a group of people who [the] only thing they knew was to demonstrate against the changes and the reformation, and now they are government because they took advantage of people&#8217;s anger.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brokalaki, who has lived in Athens for 10 years, said she did not plan to attend. But then, she explained, \u201cafter I heard what they said, I said, no, I will go! They don&#8217;t want people to demonstrate\u2014but they were always demonstrating when they were opposition.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even when Syntagma Square was most crowded, activist Elena Lemos described the turnout and lack of energy as disappointing. On other evenings, she said she had seen the square filled with so many bodies shoulder-to-shoulder that she could hardly move.<\/p>\n<p>Lemos, 58, said her son left Greece to work in Kazakstan as an electrical engineer, one of many young people who have left Greece to find work. If the government continues unchanged, Lemos said, \u201cI don\u2019t think there is much to stay for.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople are so disappointed. They don\u2019t know where to turn,\u201d Lemos explained. Her calm tone and gaze starkly contrasted with her dire predictions. \u201cThere\u2019s no hope for the future, because nothing seems to change.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The phrase \u201clight at the end of the tunnel\u201d has been used in reference to the financial crises for years, most prominently by Euclid Tsakalotos, the Greek minister of finance. But Lemos refused to buy it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no light at the end of the tunnel,\u201d she said. \u201c They\u2019ve demolished the tunnel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ALICE MAIDEN JUNE 24, 2017 ATHENS, Greece \u2014 One man waved a Greek flag. Others chanted and held aloft banners. Photographers rushed across Syntagma Square to capture the sun-washed scene in front of the Parliament building &#8212; so many that the photographers often outnumbered the activists. A week earlier, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had signed<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2017\/there-is-no-light-resign-movement-protests-another-bailout\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":174,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/174"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":399,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions\/399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}