Greece is a country largely known for its history, food, and natural beauty. It’s a country with more than four millennia of continuous jam-packed history, from the era of the Minoans to now. Containing Athens, the birthplace of democracy and therefore the cradle of Western civilization itself, Greeks have made priceless contributions to the world of politics, philosophy, math, and more. In recent years, however, Greece has been in and out of global headlines thanks to a high degree of economic struggle and mismanagement.
In the late 2000s, a global financial crisis hit the entire world. Countries around the globe suffered massive job losses, business closures, and a host of other symptoms of economic failure. While almost every country was in some way affected by the crisis, Greece was hit particularly hard. Prior to the crisis, Greece, which had only recently joined the Eurozone (the currency union of European states that all use the Euro) in 2001, had been experiencing a period of plentiful economic growth. This growth, however, was largely supported by a great deal of debt that Greece had been taking on. Once the crisis hit, the debt problem quickly grew enormous; it was soon evident that Greece had borrowed far more money than it could bring in through tax revenue. In 2010, Greece made public the enormous deficit that it had been forced to adopt, and as a result, was removed from bond markets (markets where debt securities are traded), only making things worse. As the Greek economy spiraled out of control, it became clear that Greece would need emergency bailout loans (money loaned to Greece with interest) as a lifeline. So from 2010 to 2015, Greece took on €289 billion ($330 billion) in loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union over the course of three packages. While this may have been necessary at the time, it came with a big cost.
In order to get these loans, the Greek government was required to put a number of major but much-needed austerity measures in place. These included cuts to public spending, higher taxes on the people, and lowered salaries and pensions. This resulted in massive economic hardship for the Greek people, especially young people. At its peak, the overall unemployment rate in Greece was 27.5% while the unemployment rate for Greeks under 25 was a staggering 58%. Overall, the Greek economy contracted by about 25%. Unsurprisingly, the Greek population was quite dissatisfied with the state of things.
The economic failures and hardship led to problems in the political world, including contributing to the presence of extremist parties. In the May 2012 Greek Parliamentary elections, the Communist Party of Greece and the Neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party both achieved their all-time greatest electoral successes, gaining more than 500,000 votes (8.5%) and more than 400,000 votes (7%) respectively in a country of (at the time) 11 million people. Both parties gained more than 20 seats in the parliament of 300 seats and entered the European parliament.
Clearly, things weren’t going well economically or politically in Greece. In the 2015 election, a non-mainstream left-wing populist government was brought into power under the leadership of the SYRIZA party (Coalition of the Radical Left-Progressive Alliance) and new prime minister Alexis Tsipras. Right-wing populist parties also saw success, and Golden Dawn was the third biggest party in parliament, further evidence of dissatisfaction with the existing Greek government.
As prime minister, Tsipras failed to deliver on his main promise of ending the austerity measures. He was forced to accept the third bailout, which disappointed his supporters. While unemployment fell to 19% during his leadership and Greece exited the bailout restrictions in 2018, Tsipras lost massive popularity and ultimately lost the 2019 election. It was in this election that Kyriakos Mitsotakis, leader of the center-right New Democracy party and son of former prime minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis, would rise to the position of prime minister.
In the years since, this Harvard- and Stanford-educated prime minister has brought about tremendous change and success for Greece. Elected on a pro-growth platform in 2019, Kyriakos Mitsotakis has certainly delivered on his promises. His election proved that Greeks wanted to move past populism and onto more mainstream politics, and his tenure has shown that they made the right decision.
While in office, Mitsotakis drastically adjusted Greek economic policy. For one, he has reduced taxes. This has included bringing the corporate tax rate from 28% to 22%, the dividend tax rate from 10% to 5%, reducing the property tax, and more. By lowering taxes, the government allows citizens to take home more money which they can then spend, thereby stimulating business in the country. Increased capital may also allow businesses to increase the efficiency with which they produce goods and services. He has also reduced red tape and encouraged investment. Investment helps benefit growth by helping businesses increase their capacity to produce the goods and services which they intend to provide. This, again, increases overall economic output. But Mitsotakis is not all Laissez-Faire, as he has also facilitated significant increases in the minimum wage and pensions. While this may hurt some businesses and could even potentially discourage them from opening in Greece, it also contributes to the overall take-home pay of workers and economic equality. So, while he promotes overall economic growth and decreased restrictions on the economy, he also wants to see increased economic equality and fairness for Greeks.
The changes instituted by Mitsotakis have led to major successes for Greece. Greece has gone from an economy that many worried might bring down the whole Eurozone to now being one of the fastest-growing economies on the continent. By stimulating growth in the Greek economy and allowing Greek citizens to hold on to more of their own money, Mitsotakis and New Democracy have changed the course of the country’s history. Greek unemployment is at its lowest in a decade and is back in the single digits. In fact, the Greek government has even been paying back the loans it received ahead of schedule. Importantly, credit rating agencies have at this point increased their appraisals of the Greek economy, at long last enabling foreign investment to flow into the formerly starved economy. And a good deal has indeed flowed in. Multinational companies like Microsoft, Pfizer, JPMorgan, and more are investing in Greece, with, for example, Microsoft planning the construction of a $1 billion data center outside Athens. All this is not to mention Greece’s back-to-booming world-famous tourism and shipping industries. Thanks to the leadership of Mitsotakis, Greece was named The Economist’s top economic performer of the year for 2022 and 2023 and the magazine’s country of the year in 2023.
While this wouldn’t have been possible without the bailouts and indeed the austerity measures, Kyriakos Mitsotakis deserves enormous credit for bringing about this unprecedented Greek comeback. The Greek people recognize this. In the 2023 Greek election, Mitsotakis and the New Democracy party won an outright parliamentary majority, now holding 156 seats in a 300-member parliament. In terms of votes, this was the best electoral performance of any Greek incumbent in half a century. Unlike many countries with similar parliamentary systems, this means New Democracy does not need to form a coalition with more radical right-wing parties and can retain its moderate conservative identity. Furthermore, with Golden Dawn now entirely out of the Greek government, and SYRIZA replaced by the more moderate mainstream center-left PASOK party as the largest opposition party, the Greek political scene is looking far more stable. However, the Communist Party and not-quite-neo-Nazi far-right parties do hold a number of seats in parliament.
Outside of his economic policies, Mitsotakis is a strong leader. In terms of immigration, which is widely seen as the most controversial issue in European politics today, Mitsotakis takes a moderate conservative stance once again. Sitting as the bridge between the Middle East and Europe, Greece is in a unique position as far as the immigration crisis goes. Mitsotakis has supported and emphasized the importance of legal migration into Greece while working hard to stop the flow of illegal migration into Greece and the European Union. Unlike many of his peers on the European right as well, Mitsotakis does not dehumanize migrants and understands their cause. Under his leadership, however, Greece has seen a number of (in some cases horrific) tragedies involving immigrants occur in or just outside its territorial waters; some of these situations even included death or migrants being turned away in potentially unsafe ships. These cases have garnered the Greek Coast Guard a great deal of criticism.
Internationally, Mitsotakis has been a strong supporter of the European Union and European cooperation and has aligned Greece firmly with its fellow Western partners. He has strongly supported Ukraine in its defense against the Russian invasion, even in spite of shared historical bonds between Greece and Russia. He has also met with Turkish leader Recep Erdogan numerous times in order to work towards resolving the longstanding differences between the two countries.
In order to learn more about Mitsotakis and his influence on everyday Greeks, I interviewed my grandfather, Kostis (Konstantinos) Svoronos. Svoronos is a retired lawyer who has lived in Greece his entire life. He has witnessed various Greek governments (including dictatorships) and has seen the country go through numerous tough and prosperous times alike.
After decades of seeing Greece change, Svoronos told me that now, “I am living in the best period of my country since I can remember.” He described in great detail how the situation for Greece has improved in recent years, providing tremendous praise for Prime Minister Mitsotakis and his leadership. He asserted that Mitsotakis “is doing everything possible to improve the daily problems of Greek citizens.” Svoronos elaborated that the increased prosperity under Mitsotakis is not confined to economic issues. He mentioned the conditions of hospitals as yet another example of how Mitsotakis has helped the lives of Greek citizens. Although Greece has seen its press freedom rankings decline to subpar levels in recent years due to a number of factors, Svoronos’ first-hand account as a Greek news enthusiast tells another story: he feels that television news has become increasingly objective in recent years, something he greatly values and attributes to Mitsotakis.
Svoronos also commended Mitsotakis’s performance on the world stage. He mentioned the relative state of “calm” in which Greece and Turkey – age-old foes – are living at the moment, something that he feels will add to the perceived safety of Greece and increase tourism. He discussed how Mitsotakis has “greatly improved” Greece’s relations with the E.U. and U.S. as well, an important endeavor given the strain placed on E.U.-Greece relations in the midst of Greece’s financial crisis.
Thanks to all of the progress made by Mitsotakis, Svoronos is optimistic about the future of Greece, though he has reservations. He feels that the threat of Communism to Greece is certainly no longer the greatest one as was the case in the past, though it remains present. Rather, he feels that the two biggest threats are Turkey and the rise of populism, including the right-wing populism that continues to exist in Greece, even as the Golden Dawn party is out of parliament. Nevertheless, Svoronos happily said that he now feels that “Greece is slowly becoming a truly European country.”
And this is true. While Greece’s economic crisis may have helped the country and its people to feel isolated from the rest of Europe, its recent successes have undone that phenomenon. It is now a relatively economically stable country like its continental peers. The future is bright for Greece, and Kyriakos Mitsotakis deserves much of the credit for that. While threats remain present for Greece, among them a declining population, Greece has plenty to celebrate.
