'Post-Crisis' in Greece: Subordination Normalised

This paper is based on a qualitative survey conducted in Attica in October-December 2018 and focused on the social effects of two recent public policy devices that intend (a) to guarantee a minimum solidarity income (KEA) and (b) to ensure "universal" access to public health for all citizens legally settled in Greece. The introduction of these devices has been encouraged by the European Union as part of its new pillar of social rights program focused on "extreme poverty". For electoral reasons, Greek policies were recently supplemented by a marginal improvement in the amount of the minimum wage, a partial return to legislation on collective contracts and the suspension of cuts in pensions. Do these policies amount to an end of the « crisis »? The answer must take into account two levels of analysis. At the macro level, it is clear that the formal conclusion of the Structural Adjustment Programs marks neither the end of the country's loss of sovereignty (the country remains under tight disciplinary surveillance) nor the end of austerity measures—measures which, since 2010, have brutally reduced living standards and caused an economic depression and social recession unprecedented in Europe since the Second World War. From this point of view, it is hardly possible to speak of a "post-crisis": the disciplining supervision by the European Institutions and the IMF, in particular the obligation to maintain hight primary budget surpluses (3.5% of GDP until 2022 and 2.2% until 2060) mean keeping austerity policies in place. Thus one sees no change on the horizon. However, at the micro level, the answer is more nunanced. Many of my interviewees consider that "the situation is better, even if it is not good". This recurring opinion reflects a reality that may be interpreted as the internalization of domination or, to use Pierre Bourdieu's expression, as an "adaptation to necessity". The relative stabilization of the social and political system at the lower end of its malaise echoes that adaptation. For the time being, the Greek society and polity embody a « normalized » impoverished and subordinate European entity.