At 12 noon on May Day I walked through central Athens, where the usual enormous gathering of workers was taking place, for this anniversary is always celebrated in appropriate style all over Greece. Traffic was banned, people choked Syntagma Square and surrounds, and police were everywhere. It took me over ten minutes to make my polite way to the Grande Bretagne Hotel corner, a distance of about 200 m.
I become uneasy in large crowds, and this one was huge; I have been holding my breath over the Greek situation for weeks in any case. But I was lucky: the atmosphere was calm, and my luck held throughout the afternoon.
But by evening May Day had taken on the nature of the classic distress call: a violent mob had threatened the historic hotel, and the riot squad had been called out. The one MP who had ventured into the square had had to be rescued by the police and removed to a place of (comparative) safety.
How are the Greek people feeling? I have been asked. My answer is that there is no simple answer, for they do not all agree: after all, where there are two Greeks, there are always three opinions, if not more.
But broadly speaking, most people are angry, particularly the young. Greece has never treated its youth well. One Greek woman remarked to me not long ago, 'Greece eats its children' — she was thinking of taking her only child to be educated in France. Most Greek youths studies hard, both here and overseas, yet disappointment is often the result: youth unemployment is running close to 30 per cent. And Greece is not a meritocracy: corruption and nepotism rule, so that a young person can do well if he/she has the 'right connections'.
To disappointment and resentment, add the fact that young Greeks, like most of the population, are highly politicised, and the result is a volatile mixture. To young people, five years is an eternity, and this is the minimum period of austerity currently forecast. As well, the men are forced to give up at least another year to national service. Some of the young resent their parents' past actions, blame them for the current mess, and cannot see why they should have to suffer as a result.
I suppose it is human nature to try to find a scapegoat. Those same parents tend to blame politicians, and