Greece: Protesters demand increased funding for public education

Well, students, teachers and civil servants are demonstrating in Greece today, protesting over staff shortages as well as poor infrastructure and the cost of living. Dozens of students set up tents in the square-facing parliament in Athens and on a pedestrian street in Thessalonica on Tuesday. The civil servants union has also called for a work stoppage today. I'm joined now by Nathalie Savarikas in Athens, our reporter there. Good to have you with us, Natalie. You know, explain, why are they doing this? And, you know, how much has it been influenced by what's happening in France? How much is it in support of what's happening in France? Or is it entirely a Greek thing? Well, it's been a recurring theme in Greece education. And what we saw today was thousands of students, pupils, parents, and separately also actually hospital staff pouring into the streets, not only of Athens, but across Greece, notably as well on very popular islands. Now, of course, this on one hand is reflecting a broader demonstration wave that we've been seeing that's gripped Europe from Albania all the way to France. Of course, it's on the conditions of the schools and the infrastructure, But it goes all the way to the living crisis, the difficulty in housing, and not only for pupils themselves and especially students when they go to other cities across Greece, but also for the staff shortages. because it's very difficult for teachers who earn around 1,000 euros to find accommodation in cities across the country when it costs around 60% of their income. Let's not forget the popular destinations like the islands, Rhodes, Mykonos, Santorini. There it's absolutely prohibitive to be a teacher and to actually find some sort of living accommodation. So this is very much what was the call today, as they said, from Greece to France, free public education, not only on the infrastructure, not only to accommodation and accessibility to affordable accommodation for teachers and families alike, but also the overall housing and increased living crisis that we're experiencing in Greece, but across Europe as well. Yeah, just to be clear, I don't know if the Greek students know so, but public education, university education is free here in France. Arguments about the infrastructure, but it is free. It might surprise people outside Greece, you know, looking at the figures, it's doing quite well economically. How is the government reacting to this? How seriously are they taking these protests? Absolutely. And I mean, drawing your comment, education is broadly free here, but when you have staff shortages and students unable to live in cities outside of Athens or away from their parents because it's not 70% of their income, it's not their parents' income and it's their own when they're working, it's making it very difficult. Now, of course, all the figures in Greece paint a marvelous picture. We have the real economy expanding, even with a cooling global trend, doubling the growth rate of the Eurozone and nearly double the EU average, which is at 1.1 percent. The data point that the debt is shrinking in Greece, which is an economic miracle, if if you will, compared to 10, 15 years ago, where Greece was just coming out of its massive economic crisis. But if you look on the ground, the local economy and these small businesses, they're being really stymied by the main drivers of the economy, which is tourism, now namely overtourism, but also the direct foreign investment, a lot of appeal from the Golden Visa program that was introduced back in 2015, a lot of foreign money pouring in. But that means that the locals are being squeezed out. They can't afford to be in their own country. In Athens alone, it costs around 70% of an average income, just the housing costs. So you can imagine how difficult this is. So this is very much a problem for the entire country, dissatisfaction, anger. But of course, the administration of Mitsotakis, the conservative administration, is now seeking its third term in not too long. And again, leading in the polls. Why? Because most Greeks will tell you there is no real competition. And that's really putting them between a rock and a hard place, disgruntled, angry. But what we saw today, again, pale in comparison to the anger we saw in the streets of Athens and the country so many years ago.