DW — There has been little sympathy for the EU in a country that is constantly faced with the effects of its policies – from a six-year economic crisis to an unresolved refugee crisis. Despite this, the news that Britain has chosen to exit the European Union was largely met with stunned surprise in Greece.
There were storms across the United Kingdom on Thursday, but in Athens a warm summer’s night saw in the results of the referendum. In the end, the Brexit succeeded where a threatened Grexit had not. It was just under a year ago that Greece held an ill-fated referendum against EU austerity policies, and the reaction in Athens to the looming Brexit has been mixed.
Some Greeks feel that Brits were right to make a break for independence from the European Union. Others are more cautious. They feel that Britain has taken an unnecessary gamble: The European Union may be flawed, but it still beats the alternative, and the predicted domino effect from the Brexit may well have a negative impact on the economy of Greece – a country that is in no position to suffer any further blows.
Market turbulence
Fifty-three-year-old Christina Gregson has lived in Greece since 1994 and teaches at an Athens private school. In the buildup to the referendum, she had favored a Brexit based on living through the fallout from the European Union’s economic policies toward Greece, but at the same time she had been concerned about what a Brexit might mean for the 45,000 or so British citizens living in Greece.
“The EU, and Germany especially, have failed because they have consistently used a tone with Britain that was autocratic and bullying,” Gregson said on Friday, after waking to the news that the Brexit had in fact succeeded. “That worked on Greece because it’s tiny and poor. But ‘Project Fear’ and project ‘Do as You’re Told by Brussels – We Rule You’ was and is a recipe for disaster.”
It appeared to be business as usual in the tourist district of Plaka on Friday. People strolled through the streets and shopped for souvenirs. Michelle, 37, an administration employee from Warrington who did not want her last name used, had voted by post to leave the European Union. In fact, 54.3 percent of voters in her district favoured leaving. “I do think the media are biased and making us out to be demons,” Michelle said. “We’re not. I think a lot of people in Europe are upset, thinking that we don’t like them, when that’s not true.
“We wanted to distance ourselves from the bureaucracy and the politics of the EU – not the people. And that’s what we need to get across.”
Though rumours were circulating on social media that British tourists were having difficulty exchanging sterling for euros, Michelle said she had not experienced that. British ATM cards appeared to be working normally.
Emmanuela Mathioudaki, a 50-year-old who owns a jewelry shop in Plaka, said she wasn’t worried that the falling pound might affect business. She said it had been years anyway since she had experienced the volume of customers she used to. “I think Britain did the right thing,” Mathioudaki said. “When the European Union isn’t operating as a union, it’s better to break it up and see what happens. There are always consequences – let’s see those, too.”
Friday felt something like a replay of Greece’s own recent political past. There was an unprecedented referendum; a prime minister resigned. Britain’s referendum exposed deep divisions in society, and now the country must work on rebuilding trust with its bitterly disappointed EU partners. That’s pretty close to the position Greece found itself in at about this time last year.
