Interview, 5/2017

QUESTIONS REGARDING THE PRIVATIZATION DRIVE IN GREECE

ANSWERS FROM ELENI PORTALIOU, ex professor of the National Technical University of Athens, School of Architecture, member of the Citizens’ Initiative against the Seizure of Public Property

1.  In an article I’ve read you say that privatization is “…one of the ironclad principles of neoliberal economic thinking” and that Greece is “the epicenter of privatizations”.

Can you in short describe the forms this trend has taken on in Greece?

(HRADF, HCAP, the true nature of these institutions and the coverage of the present program)

Neoliberal globalization was the answer of the capital to the crisis of the European capitalism in the middle of the 1970 decade. The politics that was based on the increase of the demand, the power of the national state, the very low percent of unemployment and the welfare state was transformed radically. The new, orientated to the supply, financial politics responds to the competitiveness of the capital through the decrease of the labor and the environmental cost and the taxation.  The confinement of the national state’s power means dwindling of the nation sovereignty and the democracy.    

During the after war period the great strategic enterprises were on the hands of the public sector, having a regulating role in the national economy. Nowadays privatization of the public enterprises indicates the end of the first post war era and the extension of the neoliberal globalization. In Greece, under the memorandum occupation, the seizure of the public assets for the sake of repaying “public debt” corresponds to the above neoliberal strategic of privatization.

It is useful to notice that the Public Debt Parliamentary Truth (PDPT) commission (July 2015) characterized the debt as “illegitimate, odious, illegal.” It is also unsustainable, approaching €320 billion today.  This means that the real target of the European Institutions and the International Monetary Fund is the seizure of the public property for the sake of private enterprises through partial processes.  

The divestiture/seizure of public property was promoted until recently through the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF), which was legislated through Memorandum Law 3968/2011 with a view to having the product of its activity used exclusively for repayment of the country’s public debt.

Step by step an increasing number of public assets have come into the possession of HRADF: over thirty-five ports, over three thousand pieces of public real estate (among them the Hellinikon airport and the Asteras Vouliagmenis hotel, spas, camping areas, Xenia hotels, ministry buildings, public administration buildings, etc.), dozens of properties abroad, dozens of listed and non-listed monuments, national roads, forty airports, military installations, natural gas , the defense industry (Hellenic Defense Systems S. A., Hellenic Vehicle Industry S.A.), oil (Hellenic Petroleum), a host of beaches and foreshores that comprise tens of thousands of hectares, the water supply (EYDAP, EYATH), hundreds and thousands of hectares of land, wetlands, railways (TRAINOSE S.A., EESSTY S.A. [Greek Railway Rolling Stock Maintenance Company]), post offices (ELTA), and profit-making enterprises.

The signing of the third memorandum in July 2015 unleashed a broader attack by the European Institutions and the International Monetary Fund. A new privatization superfund — Hellenic Company of Assets and Participations/HCAP — was approved on 21/7/2016. It does not belong to the public or the broader public sector, and the provisions concerning public companies do not apply to it. HCAP operates according to the rules of the private economy and in the public interest, for specific purposes.

The lifespan of the company is set at ninety-nine years. To put this in perspective, the lifespan of the HRADF was just six years.

Supervising this amassing of public wealth will be a supervisory board with five members, three of whom are selected by the Greek state with the approval of the European Commission and the European Stability Mechanism and two members, including the chairman of the supervisory board, are selected by the European Union and the ESM (European Stability Mechanism).

2. More commentators describe the ongoing privatization drive as an ‘existential threat’ against the ‘Greek nation state.

What is the reasoning of such an analysis?

It is absolutely true. As I have already notice neoliberal globalization is a threat for the nation state generally. The semantic decisions concerning the matters of peace, economy, social police, environment, human rights and so on are taken from international institutions and meetings, out of the democratic check and decisions of the people all around the world. The so making decisions express the will of the strong states that determine the global politics according to the interest of the very rich 1% percent of the global population.

Greece is a country under a peculiar political and economic occupation. In any case National Parliament is not free to decide for the main themes concerning the productive reconstitution, the height of the pensions and the salaries, the primary surplus and so on. Greek state is not an independent state. Having assigned the primary tools for a national productive and social strategic, i.e. – the main public enterprises and other key assets – Greek state is deprived from the basic tools for a new beginning after the memorandum. From this point of view the struggle against the seizure of the public property is a struggle for the survival of the country.        

3. When the Samaras government in 2014 tried to sell EYDAP the Supreme Court decided that sale of more than 49% of the stocks and privatizing the management was against the constitution.

The next parliament is to deal with constitutional reforms. May it change it with regard to privatization of public property and other requests from the creditors and the mighty interests they serve?

The reform of the Constitution cannot change the decision of the Supreme Court about EYDAP. It will deal with general regulations about public property that will determine the future of EYDAP, too. I want to remind that EYATH (Public Water Enterprise in Thessaloniki) confronts the problem of sale, in spite of the willing of the inhabitants that participated in the referendum organized by the municipality and the social movement “Save Water”. They voted nearly 100% against the privatization. 

4.  Both the government and the EU-Commission predict economic growth in 2017 despite the negative figures published by ELSTAT for the fourth quarter last year. According to the economic forecast of the Commission it will be based on local consumption, while Tsakalotos says it will depend on growth in foreign investments.

Investments have been decreasing every year since 2007– even under the privatization program. In 2011 the goal was to gain 50 billions euro until 2019. In December 2014 figures published by HRADP revealed that Greece had only received 3,1 billions.

What are the main reasons why? Will it change with HCAP?

5.  What will be the implications – in pure economic terms – of investors taking over of public property in general – and infrastructure in particular? Does it necessarily mean growth in GDP?

(I suppose that COSCO and their concessions in the port of Piraeus is an important link in the Chinese ‘One Way-One Belt’ strategy. But what about the regional airports, the port in Thessaloniki, the railways, EYDAP and EYATH, energy, defense industries etc?

The so called economic growth in 2017 depends on the high percent of unemployment, the part time and not insured work, the abolition of the labor rights, the tax exemption/evasion of big enterprises and the illegal methods they use in order to multiply their profits.

As I have already explain the minimal income from the two funds for the privatization of public property are not given to the Greek State. Besides, the majority of the Greek population does not believe that the investments must be realized through the seizure of the public property. This seizure brings profit to the entrepreneurs but destroy the Greek economy. I’ ll explain it with the example of Hellinikon.

STRUGGLE COMMITTEE FOR THE METROPOLITAN PARK IN HELLINIKON

WE REJECT THE SO CALLED INVESTMENT IN HELLINIKON

WE PROPOSE AN ALTERNATIVE ECOLOGICAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL PROJECT

THE STRUGGLE AGAINST THE PLUNDER OF HELLINIKON CONTINUES

The so-called “investment” in Hellinikon amounts to plunder of a public area of 6,205,677m2 representing huge ecological and economic value, while riddled with legal and constitutional complexities. The Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF) – owner of the area – and the members of Greek Parliament are in any case willing to by-pass the national and european law in order to serve the interests of the “investor”.

A PRIVATE CITY OF 27,000 INHABITANTS AND 3-3,6 MILLION m2

FLOOR SPACE WILL BE ESTABLISHED IN HELLINIKON

In the ecologically stressed Attica Basin in which the battle against climate change prohibits any new building activity inside the coastal and neighboring municipalities, where there is already a glut of unoccupied real estate, this so called investment is a disastrous ecological bomb that will have a disastrous

DISASTROUS ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND ECOLOGICAL IMPACT ON ATTICA.

CONCESSION OF AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE

In the ecologically stressed Attica Basin in which the battle against climate change prohibits any new building activity inside the coastal and neighboring municipalities, where there is already a glut of unoccupied real estate, this so called investment is a disastrous ecological bomb that will have a disastrous impact on the local economy and the economy of the wider metropolitan region.

The new private city will draw consumers away from the enterprises – already struggling with the crisis – of the neighboring municipalities and the wider district, delivering them a significant new blow. The new office buildings, the malls and other shops across the Vouliagmenis Avenue and the crowd of new houses of the Foster plan will lead the present real estate market to chronic decline and the relevant enterprises to bankruptcy. The new jobs, badly paid and lacking proper insurance, will be created on the ruins of the small and medium trade, tourist and building enterprises, hired labor, self-employment and complementary renting incomes. A huge building site will function for decades, creating a continuous worsening of the city functions as well as in the tourist sector.

It is extremely worrying that for the first time an archaeological site is conceded to private business. The archaeological service will not be able to continue its work and, what is worse, the construction of millions of square meters of built area will irreversibly prevent archaeological investigation of the ancient municipalities of Alimos, Aexoni and Evonymon.

6.  Adherents of the so-called Chicago School founded by Milton Friedman and his cohorts often apply the term “rent seeking economies” about the countries in the southern periphery of Europe. When it comes to Greece they argue that by removing bureaucratic and legal obstacles to the free play of market forces a new business class will emerge. It will be different from the strata of national moguls (or oligarchs) and characterized by strong dynamism and competiveness on the European and international level.

Are there any indications that their scenario will materialize in Greece?

Milton Friedman and his cohorts in Chicago School promoted the most cruel neoliberal theory that was applied exemplary under the heinous dictatorship in Chile. They are not the right co-speakers all the more so they do not produce economical ideas but political means for huge exploitation.

Removing bureaucratic and legal obstacles means that the enterprises occupy in a way the country, exploit the raw materials, the environment and the labor force, violate the constitution and the laws and are interweaved with the political stuff.

I don’t believe that it is easy for any oligarch to impose his omnipotence on a democratic European country, but we must not forget that nowadays the polarization between the very rich and the very poor is huge. Also, I don’t believe that a new business class is going to emerge through the recipe of the Chicago School. For the time being the so-called middle class is dwindled and been degraded.

7.  It seems to me that the social movements in Greece – and the Greek left in general – are very weak at present.

What are the implications of the present state of affairs when it comes to the prospect of popular resistance to the privatization drive in future?

Social movements in Greece and all around the world are nowadays very weak. After the Second World War social movements emerged thrice in the historical scene. First, during the revolutionary period around the emblematic year 1968. Second, with the anti-global movement. Third, with the “Occupy” movement.

It is not the place to put the problems, the restrictions and the possibilities for a new spring of the social movements in Greece and elsewhere. But we know that history is repeated, of course   with different ways and different results according to the circumstances.