Angry demonstrations
in Athens after public buildings around the Acropolis and other landmarks
included in privatisation list.
Furious opponents marched through the city
centre at the weekend to denounce the "illegal sale" of the country's
heritage. More than four years into debt-stricken Greece's prolonged economic
crisis, many described the step as the height of humiliation for a nation
already hit by excoriating austerity and record levels of poverty and
unemployment.
"The government is constantly trying to
convey the message that the economy is a success story but in reality that is
not the case at all," said prominent leftwing campaigner Petros
Constantinou. "The decision to put public buildings up for sale is not
just proof that they are nowhere near reaching targets but plain wrong when
they could be exploited for public benefit."
Under immense pressure to enact reforms for
the release of a long overdue €10.1bn (£8.5bn) aid instalment from
international creditors, prime minister Antonis Samaras' fragile two-party
coalition handed the real estate to the fund overseeing the sale of state
assets (Taiped) last week. Among the properties are refugee tenement blocks
built to put up Greeks fleeing the Asia Minor disaster in 1922 and culture
ministry offices housed in neo-classical buildings in the picturesque Plaka
district at the foot of the Acropolis that were erected shortly after the
establishment of the modern Greek state. Both are widely viewed as
architectural gems.
The move follows an equally controversial
decision by the country's powerful archaeological council (Kas) to allow two of
Athens' most significant ancient sites - the Stoa of Attalos in the ancient
agora and Panathenaic Stadium - to be leased to companies for private
functions. Previously, requests for commercial use of the monuments have been
flatly rejected by the council. In 1998, Kas turned down an offer by Calvin
Klein to raise funds for the construction of the New Acropolis Museum in lieu
of showcasing the fashion house's collection at the 2nd century AD Herod
Atticus theatre beneath the Acropolis.
Greece's privatization programme has been
problem-plagued from the day bankrupt Athens became the ward of the EU,
European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund in May 2010. Protests
have been such that the drive – originally brandished as Europe's most
ambitious privatisation programme ever – has been scaled back from raising
€50bn by 2015 to €11bn by 2016.
The decision to sell off public assets
invested with such historic significance has not only angered anti-austerity
leftists. It has raised howls of protest from reform-minded conservatives with many
wondering whether Greece is finally enacting what Germany's tabloid press has
long taunted it to do: sell off its cultural heritage to pay off its monumental
debt.
"The rush to sell these assets … raises
serious questions [as to] whether they are being purposely sold on the cheap in
order to speed up the privatisation process," thundered Nikos Xydakis in
the conservative daily Kathimerini, lamenting the decision to sell off
properties imbued with such symbolic value around the Acropolis. "Will the
outrageous proposal put forward by the German magazine Bild suggesting that
Greece should sell or rent its island to cut its debt [next] come to
pass?" he asked.
(Πηγή: theguardian.com)
