Citizen Maria: Greece's "Generation 700"

How does an entire generation deal with the economic crisis that has hit Greece? Maria, a young lawyer in Athens, searches for answers in this open investigation devoted to the citizens.

In Greece, young graduates between 25 and 35 who have difficulty getting decent pay for their jobs are known as the Generation 700 (earning less than 700 euros per month). And the economic crisis made things even worse.

Maria belongs to this Generation 700, which is concerned about the future.

With Alexia Kefalas in Athens, Jean Quatremer in Brussels, Joan Ubeda in Barcelona, and a team in France, Article Z and the Arte channel offer Citizen Maria the opportunity to compare her own situation to the conditions of people living in other European countries.

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Reuters: Timeline of the Euro Zone Debt Crisis

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The Atlantic: Three Scenarios for the Greek Debt Crisis

Guardian UK: How Did the Greek Economy Get Into Such a Mess?

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UNESCO

After dreaming of it for months, Maria finally gets in touch with someone from the UNESCO. For her, this international organization incorporates culture, education, peace and poverty reduction. Maria, who studied sociology and law, would like to work for the UNESCO in order to escape from Generation 700. George Anastasopoulos, the ambassador of Greece at the UNESCO, accepted to meet Maria to debate the crisis.

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Functionaries

Demonstrations, like the one that took place in Athens and in which a thousand people participated, do not interest Maria. Facing Ilios Iliopoulos, secretary general of Adedy, the functionaries' trade union, Maria doesn't back down and asks some hard-hitting questions!

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The Cohn-Bendit Effect

On May 5, the Green Party deputy Daniel Cohn-Bendit expressed his anger over the Europeans: "We are completely hypocritical. We give them money to buy our weapons." Can the indignation of a Member of the European Parliament actually make a difference?

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Soros Speaks (1/2)

Soros delivers an acid-tongued, incisive and, as usual, surprising speech on the Greek crisis. Running with the pack is definitely foreign to his nature, and Maria voices her reaction to his declarations. Patrice Barrat and Tetiana Pryimachuk met him in Budapest, his family's hometown.

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Disunited Europe

Trying to get some inside information on the crisis, Maria talks to Jean Quatremer, a correspondent with the journal Libération in Brussels. No matter if the topic is European disagreements, French-German quarrels or IMF interventions, Quatremer gives Maria his very honest opinions. Here he comments on the Greek crisis, which has become a crisis of the Euro.

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Exarchia: Maria's political and social Athens

First of all, Maria wants to remind everybody of the events which left their mark on the Greek youth, which Maria belongs to. In the Exarchia district, where she lives, everything still reflects these times.

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Generation 700
On December 6, 2009, Alexis Grigoropoulos, a 15-year-old high school student, was killed by a policeman during student demonstrations. The protests were followed by riots. At the beginning, the revolt was led by the extreme left, but then it grew larger, including the youth baptized "Generation 700" (700 euros is the Greek minimum wage). Most of them are tired of corruption and scandals; they all face price increases and austerity measures caused by the crisis.

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Corruption
The independent organization Transparency International points out that Greece, together with Bulgaria and Romania, is one of the most corrupt countries in Europe. So Maria asks herself what role corruption plays in the crisis and how to get out of this situation. Together with our correspondent, Alexia Kefalas, she meets Aris Syngros, representative of Transparency International in Athens.

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Barcelona
Last April in Spain, the unemployment rate passed 20%, hitting 40.93% of those in the workforce under 25. In Greece, the unemployment rate is 11.8%, in comparison to an average of 10.5% within the eurozone. But unemployment among young people could rise up to 28% by the end of 2010. Maria compares her country with Spain and speaks with Oriol Homs, an expert on employment issues, via videoconference from Barcelona.

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Family Meeting
Looking at Greece, you can hardly talk about a generation gap. Most parents devote themselves to their children to guarantee them the best education available. It is also about family pride. That’s true for Maria’s parents, Giorgos and Laura Nathanail, who head up a small agriculture firm. They invested a lot of money in the education of their two daughters, Nancy and Maria. Nancy is living in the United States, while Maria is suffering from the crisis in Greece.
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