Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Papandreou stepped down in early 1996 due to ill health and he died on 26 June. His
departure produced a dramatic change of direction for PASOK, with the party abandon-
ing Papandreou's left-leaning politics and electing experienced economist and lawyer
Costas Simitis as the new prime minister (who won a comfortable majority at the Octo-
ber 1996 polls).
Greek is Europe's oldest written language, second only to Chinese in the world. It is
traceable back to the Linear B script of the Minoans and Mycenaeans. For more on Lin-
ear B script, try
www.ancientscripts.com/linearb.html
.
The 21st Century
The new millenium saw Greece join the eurozone in 2001, amid rumblings from existing
members that it was not ready economically to join - its public borrowing was too high,
as was its inflation level. Membership had already been denied in 1999, and many
Greeks were keen to ditch the drachma and nestle under the stable umbrella of the euro.
In hindsight, many look back on that year and bemoan the mis-callibration of the
drachma against the euro, claiming Greece's currency was undervalued, and that,
overnight, living became disproportionately more expensive. That said, billions of euros
poured into large-scale infrastructure projects across Greece, including the redevelop-
ment of Athens - spurred on largely by its hosting of the 2004 Olympic Games, which
was a tremendous boost for the city. However, rising unemployment, ballooning public
debt, slowing inflation and the squeezing of consumer credit took their toll. Public opin-
ion soured further in 2007 when Kostas Karamanlis' (the nephew of Konstandinos Kara-
manlis) conservative government (who had come to power in 2004) was widely criticised
for its handling of the emergency response to severe summer fires, which were respons-
ible for widespread destruction throughout Greece. Nevertheless, snap elections held in
September 2007 returned the conservatives, albeit with a diminished majority.
Over recent years, a series of massive general strikes and blockades highlighted
mounting electoral discontent. Hundreds of thousands of people protested against pro-
posed radical labour and pension reforms and privatisation plans that analysts claim
would help curb public debt. The backlash against the government reached boiling point
in December 2008, when urban rioting broke out across the country, led by youths out-
raged by the police shooting of a 15-year-old boy in Athens following an alleged ex-
change between police and a group of teenagers. Youths hurled stones and firebombs at
riot police who responded with tear gas. Concern continued over political tangles in in-
vestigations regarding alleged corruption among state executives (on both sides of the
political fence) in connection with the Siemens Hellas group. This followed another con-
