ABSTRACT
The last decade saw Greece navigate turbulent waters, both economically and socially, as well as politically. The sovereign debt crisis that hit the country in 2009 quickly evolved into a full-blown financial crisis with important consequences in all facets of economic and social life. Poverty and unemployment rose exponentially (as of 2017, the percentage of people at risk of poverty stood at 34.8%, an increase of 7.1 percentage points since 2010, and unemployment steadily remained the highest among the EU-28, at 21.5%); the political scene was reset, leading to the emergence of new players and the fading out of the old establishment. Political parties that were around at the beginning of the crisis either disappeared or were rebranded under new names and with new alliances (PASOK and LAOS), while new political forces came to the fore (SYRIZA, Potami, Enosi Kentroon, Golden Dawn). The crisis has been managed by four consecutive governments from all sides of the political spectrum. The socialist PASOK government signed the first Memorandum, followed by a short-lived national unity government in 2011 and a caretaker government in 2012, until the rise in power of the conservative New Democracy in 2012 and the signing of the second Memorandum. After two-and-a-half years in power, New Democracy was defeated in the 2015 elections by SYRIZA, the coalition of the radical left, which has governed the country since, forming a coalition government with the populist right-wing nationalist party of Aneksartitoi Ellines (Independent Greeks), albeit with a short interregnum in August 2015 (just before and because of the snap elections of September 2015).
