While its State needs breathing machines, Athens pulses stronger than ever. The city, which has almost four million inhabitants, wakes ups every day loaded with revolt and sadness. They are revolted for being portrayed as a center of corruption, as a place of lazy people, who let the country drown in a virtually impayable debt. The sadness comes from having to pay, with their own money, the cuts imposed but the Troika, formed by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

In a series of special reports, Opera Mundi shows some of the radical transformations that shook the Greek society in these times of crisis. The country that was once open to immigrants elected a group of neo-Nazi deputies. The European community was dumbfounded, as nothing like had happened since the Second World War. It’s the highest indication of the scrap of hopes, schools and hospitals.

On the other hand, the crisis, with its collateral revolts, led the Greek people to channel their energies, and little by little, build movements that are as powerful as the student revolt of 1973, which succeeded in knocking down the military board that ruled the country through fear. There are new radical groups, horizontal and spontaneous, that are working to build an alternative press, to create solidarity cooperatives and to house the immigrants hounded by the fascists.

Thus, Greece is more than a new lab for neoliberal politics, accepted by most of the center-right members of the parliament. It is also a focus point of radical politics that begin to unite the European south in a chain of resistance to the crisis. The block, known in the financial market as PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain), will face a 2013 even worse than the previous years. But Athens, the capital of this new movement, among tears and frustrations, is stronger than ever, which is what you’ll read about here.

Ormina: “Greeks come and ask for food. I always give it to them, the situation is hard”
Greek communist leader alerts against Troika and Syriza: “They’re mocking the people”
After a turbulent year, Greece enters 2013 under austerity packages and the uprising of the neo-Nazis

Hopeless, Greeks depend on solidarity to survive the crisis
Greek hospitals are in ruins, and those who are hurt during protests depend on volunteers
Greece and the Future of Europe

Athens “screams at your eyes” through anarchic and elaborated graffiti
Up against fascism, Greek anarchists open “solidarity center” and receive immigrants

Journalists who lost their jobs because of the crisis strengthen the Greek alternative press
No job, no future: students are starting to leave Greece

“Greek is not only hate and discrimination. It is also violence”, says an immigrant
From Syria to the Neo-Nazi Greece: “We want to leave, we can’t stay here anymore”

Athens Diary: nine days in epicenter of the European crisis