[WATCH] Greeks in Malta rally against austerity, call for No vote

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Members of the Greek community in Malta gathered in Valletta to protest against the imposition of harsh austerity measures against Greece.

Greeks who spoke to MaltaToday said that austerity has severely damaged Greece and has forced people to live like animals. They urged Greeks to vote ‘No’ in Sunday’s referendum, arguing that an outcome of a ‘No’ victory surely cannot be worse than more years of austerity. Some also dismissed warnings by European leaders that a ‘No’ vote would be a vote against the Euro and in favour of a return to the drachma. 

Maria, a 35-year-old Greek teacher, emotionally recounted how she had been forced to immigrate to Malta after losing her job. 

“I’m supposed to be in the prime of my life and I’ve been forced to leave my family behind to find a job out of Greece,” she said. “I toss and turnin bed every night, worrying about my country’s future and a possible return to the drachma.”

Prodomos Kachrimanidis, a Greek man, recounted how his father is struggling to pay his monthly rent of €300 after his pension had been cut to €400.

The Greeks and Maltese supporters of the ‘No’ vote stood outside the City Gate Shopping Arcade in Republic Street behind a large banner that read ‘No to financial blackmail, solidarity with the Greek people’.

Similar solidarity protests were held today in European cities such as Berlin, Brussels, London, and Venice.

The gathering was organised by Moviment Graffiti, who declared their support for Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and condemned efforts by European and international institutions to undermine the Greek referendum.

“The European Central Bank’s decision to stop liquidity to Greek banks and the bellicose declaration from European figures point to an increasingly authoritarian Europe where the neoliberal ideology of giving power to markets and those holding financial strength is becoming dominant,” Graffiti spokesperson Carmen Caruana said. “Money loaned by the troika [International Monetary Fund, European Commission and the European Central Bank] since 2010 was given under conditions that made the Greek economy shrink, have driven tens of thousands into poverty and drastically increased unemployment.

“It was clear from the beginning that Greece would have never been in a position to return the money loaned- this was just used as a political tool to impose on Greece specific economic measures based on a neoliberal ideology. 

“Bullying, blackmail and patronizing attitudes by the troika intensified when the Greek elected the left-wing Syriza. The troika kept wanting to impose economic measures that would completely destroy the Greek economy and rejected the Greek proposal to increase taxes for the rick.

“Instead, it insisted on penalizing pensioners, workers and the most vulnerable. Clearly, these were political choices aimed at imposing a specific ideology on Greece and at undermining the elected left-wing government.”