I have been living in Athens for about ten years. I am married to a Greek woman from Chios, I have two French-Greek children, and I have always loved this country. I spent my studies, my time and my research in Athens, studying the ‘Greek Crisis’ for Sorbonne University between 2010 and 2013. In 2013, I wrote an article for ΤΟ ΒΗΜΑ entitled ‘Two Huge Greek Responsibilities for the Future’, in which I defended the Greeks who were then, in their flesh, self-esteem and identity, dragged through the mud by other European countries.
Twelve years later, I feel again a duty -and a certain legitimacy- to write this new article: a duty to speak again to you, Greek people, whom I have been always defending, but who must also sometimes listen to the truth that is sometimes difficult to hear, especially when it is coming from an ‘insider’; and a legitimacy of heart (my own blood is now forever linked to your country) and of situation (I have been living with you guys for many years). All of this, I hope, allows me to write these lines today.
I stand today before you because, despite the extreme efforts made by Greeks over the past fifteen years and the reassuring chorus of European institutions, rating agencies and markets, I am now convinced that the country has learned nothing and is once again heading to a major crisis. Not a spectacular crisis like the one in 2010. A quiet, silent crisis that is quietly taking hold — and that no one wants to see. To summarise, the daily reality of the Greek people has almost nothing to do with the graphs and curves, and this might have severe consequences in the future.
Real life tells a very different story from the Greek “recovery success story”
From small shops to big properties’ purchases, the anecdotes are similar. In 2025’s Greece 2.0, you are still offered a price ‘with or without VAT’. Property transactions, for example, often include an undeclared portion to avoid the 15% of Capital Gains Tax. In 2025’s Greece 2.0, many notaries (including foreign ones) are still silently leaving the room when it is time to count the bundles of extra banknotes — letting, by ‘discreet convenience’, a counting machine on their desk. In 2025’s Greece 2.0, some farmers still declare fake herds and land, fabricated to siphon off CAP subsidies. In 2025’s Greece 2.0, queues of men in work overalls are still adding non-sourced banknotes in the ATMs every Fridays. In 2025’s Greece 2.0, entire professions declare incomes so low that they become absurd: it is an open secret that plumbers, small shopkeepers and hairdressers can declare monthly sums that bear no relation to their actual activity and that could not make them survive if they were true (305 Euros declared per month on average for hairdressers).
Those who live here do know that these little and big tricks are not a marginal exception: they structure the real economy. They are still the cultural, social and administrative norm in the country. But everyone keeps looking the other way around. The “Tekmiria” system -which should activate when declared income is too low compared to living standards- is still the exception, while cynicism is widespread. Greece now has an official economy and an underground economy separated by a gap that is widening every year. 2025’s Greece feels like 2007’s Greece.
The warning signs are clear
The informal economy, already one of the largest in Europe, continues to grow. Property prices are skyrocketing, fuelled by cash, foreign investors and mass tourism. Young graduates are leaving. The birth rate is plummeting. The state is still struggling to exercise any serious control. And then there is the public debt, which everyone pretends to believe is ‘manageable’ because it is in the hands of European institutions and a young and dynamic government.
But this ‘house of cards’ rests on low interest rates, exceptional political conditions and artificial confidence. People forget that Greece remains one of the countries most vulnerable to external shocks. That a slowdown in tourism, a sustained rise in interest rates or a geopolitical event would be enough to expose its weaknesses. The warning signs are there. They are even flashing red. And yet again: silence.
Why look elsewhere? Why the silence? Because it suits everyone!
It is not that Europe and the markets do not see anything. It is that they do not want to see. The European Union, like the pro-European national parties, cannot afford another ‘Greek episode’: a new financial earthquake in Greece would be a gift to Eurosceptics across the continent. Investors, for their part, also do have every interest in talking about stability (while taking advantage of the country’s missteps to make good deals, of course). They have bet on tourism, real estate, infrastructure, but also on the “Greek tricks” added to a socio-economic system that is precarious for Greeks but attractive to others: the current cocktail is perfect for them. As for successive Greek governments, they are playing the card of restored normality: they need to attract foreign capital, take advantage of European funds and maintain a fragile social peace. In other words, absolutely everyone has good reasons to perpetuate the fiction or the tricks today. “Greece, a stabilised country”. “Greece, a post-crisis success story”. “Greece, a model of resilience”. All looks like a very good Eurovision song.
The current Greek illusion will have a price
A society where the law is optional and customised always ends up losing confi dence in itself. First a widespread mistrust, not only of those in power, but also of one’s neighbours, and even of oneself. Then a silent anger, not only against large-scale corruption, but also against small-scale corruption(s) that we all can see on a daily basis.
Also, younger generations of Greeks are no longer looking for easy scapegoats like in 2009 (e.g. the EU, Wolfgang Schauble, the governments, capitalism, etc.) and instead start highlighting the mistakes, hypocrisy and deceit of all the Greeks together. Those young Greeks will soon accuse a neighbour, a superior, an acquaintance, maybe even a family member, because they are aware that any small or big action allowing their neighbour, superior or uncle to bend the rules and earn a little more today is in fact stealing from future generations. Then, they will leave for Germany, Sweden or the UK, where companies wait for cheap and efficient brains.
Greece has not turned the page. It has simply closed the book without reading it.
It is time to stop mistaking macroeconomic improvements for a cure. The country has changed, yes. But it has changed on the surface. Beneath the veneer, the exact same mechanisms that led to the 2009 crisis are still there: big and small tricks, while everyone is looking away because everyone is winning from this situation right here, right now. If it continues in this direction, Greece will not only have sacrifi ced its last generation to get out of the crisis, but also the next ones. The ‘ego, tora, prota’ mentality at all levels –from the friend who saves us a parking space on the street in Pangrati by leaving his old, unusable michanaki there, to the Cretan farm manager who embezzles millions of euros in European funds– is slowly killing Greece. The country is silently heading towards a dead end, and the current omphaloskopisi indeed benefits everyone at the “t” time now. In such a context, it is time for young Greeks to think in terms of “t+1” and become a society again.
