ABSTRACT

This chapter examines citizens’ discourse in relation to the availability, legitimacy, and efficacy of political participation in crisis times in Greece. It shows that Greek citizens triggered radical social change by strategically taking advantage of structural opportunities emerging from the crisis, but also created political opportunities themselves by sustained political mobilisation in the movement and party arena. The chapter presents findings of the inductive grounded theory focus group analysis. Most studies on the Greek crisis rely heavily on case studies of particular mobilisations or on self-reported survey data. Doubtless, quantitative accounts of citizens’ political attitudes and behaviour intentions provide a representative – yet descriptive – picture of their political response to the Greek crisis. The Greek financial crisis is a vast humanitarian crisis for the majority of the population. Accusations of racism and xenophobia were denied by presenting Greeks as homogenously hospitable people in solidarity with refugees.