Sadness in northern Greece, thanks to profit-oriented real estate sharks and corrupt officials
Photo: dpa/Yannis Kolesidis
Petros Markaris, a theme in your new novel is polarization in Greek society. Money makers, investors, cutthroats on the one hand against those who want to preserve tradition and history and those who live in precarious conditions. But there is little movement. How important are public protests today?
In the 1960s, in Athens and other cities, there were protests almost every day. Today no one is protesting, apart from young people who are close to anarchism and who are provoking the law enforcement. Citizens express their dissatisfaction on social media and are happy when they count the “likes” they have received.
Not more? What about the organized left?
The big difference is the left then and now. The left of the 1960s knew how to mobilize citizens and bring them to the streets. Today’s left is a system party, like all other parties, and makes politics via social media.
Interview
afp/Theophile Bloudanis
The annual crime novel by Petros Markaris has been published on the German book market. A group of US investors who want to bring a lot of money to Greece are being investigated to solve the murder of an archaeologist. As always, the new case of Commissioner Kostas Charitos is inspired by the social reality in the writer’s homeland: “Women’s Revolt” (a. d. Greek by Michaela Prinzinger, Diogenes, 320 pages, br., €21.99).
The son of an Armenian merchant and a Greek mother, he studied economics before devoting himself to writing. He wrote several plays, created a popular television crime series (“Anatomy of a Crime”), was co-author with the successful filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos and translated several German dramas into Greek, including Goethe’s “Faust.” Stefan Berkholz spoke to Petros Markaris in Athens.
The novel is called “Uprising of Women.” It’s also about machismo, violence against women, and contempt for women. How rooted is this in contemporary Greek society?
The problem existed before too. But things have gotten much worse during the corona pandemic and the lockdown. Violence against women is an almost everyday problem.
How widespread is domestic violence against women in Greece?
There are no exact numbers. The difference is that women used to be silent. Now the women are speaking, they are protesting or making accusations. Violence against women has also become a daily topic in the media.
Your new novel also contains criticism of the excesses of mass tourism. Is Greece still an independent state or has it long been a protectorate of the tourism industry?
Tourism is our “heavy industry,” every Greek politician claims. Tourism has already reached record levels this year. This not only increases hotel and restaurant prices enormously, but also rents as a result of Airbnb. I have nothing against tourism. However, I am against the fact that investors in the tourism business earn a lot, but employees in the tourism industry work 12 to 14 hours a day for cheap wages.
Commissioner Charitos says right at the beginning of the story that he has no idea about economics, but it doesn’t occur to him that things will improve in Greece after the EU “rescue packages”, after the pandemic and lockdown. You know a lot about economics; you studied economics in Vienna. How do you assess the economic situation in Greece? Is a balloon being inflated?
The economy has recovered since 2020. Things are looking up. But this affects a limited circle of investors and entrepreneurs. The vast majority are still fobbed off with low wages.
According to the latest surveys, around 85 percent of employees earn a maximum of 1,000 euros per month. Can you confirm this number?
I know many people who only earn 850 euros net per month. Others work two or three jobs to make ends meet.
Greeks work much longer on average than Germans, it is said, and they work the longest in Europe anyway. The Federal Statistical Office gave figures for Greece for 2022 on average 41 hours per week, for Germany 35 hours per week.
Yes. And many young people are leaving Greece to find a better job somewhere in Europe. In addition, prices have risen sharply as a result of the war in Ukraine. Many families have a survival problem.
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In your new novel, a group of American investors are led through the antiquities of Greece to unveil a crazy, megalomaniacal plan. I’m currently thinking of the crazy, megalomaniacal construction project on the old airport site in Athens. What do you think of it?
We live in a time in which every investment and every financial project bears the label of “growth”. My generation and yours, Mr. Berkholz, grew up in a society that had a value system. Today the only value in society is money. You can see this in the field of human sciences, how they are gradually going downhill. The younger generations believe that economics and technology will ensure them better paying jobs and more opportunities in life.
Have the first cases of corruption become known in the construction project on the old airport site in Athens?
Corruption is part of everyday life in Greece, but certainly not only here. Hardly a day goes by without a corruption case.
You are already working on the next novel. What will the 16th case of Kostas Charitos be about?
My next novel is based on a triangle: antiquity, the technical intelligentsia and tourism. Youth violence will also occur, a very acute issue, and not just in Greece.
Are you already thinking about the end of the series?
No, and I don’t want to think about it either. I will continue writing as long as I still have ideas and ideas.
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