By Aggeliki S. Trikouli
Philologist
Coordinator of O.M. Kalymnos
Deputy Press Office of the Regional Committee of Dodecanese
Distancing from politics and the devaluation of politics is a problem for democracy.
I borrow a phrase from a recent interview by the President of SYRIZA–PS, Sokratis Famellos, who condemns—today more than ever perhaps—the necessity of collective awakening, action, and reaction to everything happening in our country due to the responsibility of the N.D. government.
📍 At a time when wages remain stagnant, the government is officially abolishing the 8-hour workday, creating for the employee a suffocating daily reality of work, overwork to the point of exhaustion, with no balance between professional and personal life, just to barely survive.
📍 The purchasing power of Greeks is at the lowest position in the eurozone. Real wages are only about 70% of what they were in 2009, before the crisis. 46% of our fellow citizens could not afford a vacation in 2025.
📍 Public University Schools are being shut down, such as the Law School of Patras, under the pretext of unemployment in the legal sector and the supposed mismatch between studies and actual labor market needs.
Of course, the government’s narrative collapses when, just days ago, licenses were granted to three private law schools at non-state (“private”) second-rate colleges, with exorbitant tuition fees and with political favors ensuring the placement of rectors and other high-ranking members on administrative boards. However, the goal has now been achieved.
The government is no longer concerned with unemployment in the legal profession, as long as their own people are served. They don’t even care about the top-achieving 19,000 students who would have entered the Law School of Patras! What really matters to them is the 10,000 euros in tuition fees.
📍 The new school year is starting in a few days, with thousands fewer children entering first grade and hundreds of schools closed. Enrollment in the first grade has dropped by 40% in the past 15 years.
In Central Macedonia, Epirus, and Western Macedonia, 232 school units will remain closed. Official announcements place 76 Primary Schools and 156 Kindergartens on suspension.
In the
Dodecanese, for the 2025–2026 school year, 4 Kindergartens and 5 Primary Schools are shutting down due to a lack of students.
This severe demographic crisis is now glaringly obvious, and the accompanying depopulation of the regions and border areas is the result of specific government policies, projecting a bleak image of the future. This must be immediately addressed and reversed through development.
📍 It is a matter of political will and a strong State that will provide economic incentives, adopting public policies for remote and island regions with additional incentives for living and development tools that would allow local communities to experience real development throughout the year, without their residents being confined exclusively to seasonal tourism serving only the European summer rush.
Without guaranteed decent work, without strong income, without a strong welfare state, and without prosperity for all, there is no development.
And without development, there is no sustainable future.
📍 SYRIZA–PS is going to submit a realistic economic proposal at the Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF), proving that a better outlook for our country can and must exist.
We have already repeatedly proposed the return of the 13th and 14th salaries for public employees, the reinstatement of the 18th pension, the abolition of the solidarity contribution, and the full integration of personal difference for pensioners. Likewise, we propose the immediate reduction of unjust indirect taxes.
📍 Citizen participation in the broader reconstruction of society and in driving change is our only collective power. It is the power we must not allow to fall asleep. It is the power we must not lose as citizens of this country—not just every four years in elections. That is the bare minimum.
Participation in collective processes, in everyday struggles and demands, in the fight to safeguard rights and living conditions, ensures not only a present but a future of dignity for all our fellow citizens.
SYRIZA–PS plans seriously and invests responsibly in that future.
