Our older folks used to say “the pocket hurts” to illustrate the impact of inflation on the average household.
Today, that phrase applies more than ever due to the current multiple crises and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which further aggravates the ever bleaker terrain faced by Greeks and the citizens of other European countries.
The intense problems that have arisen in the daily life and the standard of living of citizens, including price hikes on even basic products, coupled with the energy recession, are critical problems which European governments must be resolve.
A pressing task for the Greek government is to design an emergency strategy to maintain and protect social cohesion and to bolster the budget of Greek households.
All recent polls indicate that the daily behaviour of Greek citizens has changed and that they are re-ordering priorities as regards their basic needs.
The overarching issue that the strategy of the government must take into account is that tending to citizens’ daily needs lies at the core of the effort to defend normalcy and to maintain and improve to the extent possible their standard of living and quality of life, as previous governments had done since the regime change after the fall in 1974 of the Greek military junta.
Let us not forget that neo-poverty and shrinking purchasing power often – if not always – provide fertile ground for the growth of populist currents that offer simplistic answers to complex issues and test the cohesion of democratic societies.
