PRESS RELEASE

Greek Archbishop Issues Impassioned
Denunciation: Troika's Policies
Are Destroying Greek Nation

Feb. 2, 2012 (EIRNS)—In an extraordinary move, Archbishop Ieronymos, Greece's highest religious authority, today issued an impassioned denunciation of the austerity policies being forced on Greece by the EU-ECB-IMF Troika. The Archbishop, who up until now has only issued guarded statements in an attempt to avoid controversy, openly stated that these policies are destroying the Green nation and Greek people.

"Homelessness and even hunger—phenomena seen during the [Second World] war—have reached nightmare levels. ... A sense of patience among Greeks is running out, giving way to a sense of anger, and the danger of a social explosion can no longer be ignored," Ieronymos wrote in a letter to Prime Minister Lucas Papademos. The Archbishop went on, today, that "pensions were cut, while day laborers are in despair and insecurity has found a nest inside every single Greek household....

"It seems clear now that our homeland's drama will not finish here but may take on new, uncontrollable dimensions," he wrote. "We must all understand the feeling of insecurity, desperation and depression in every Greek home. This, unfortunately, is continuing to cause suicide among those who can no longer stand the drama in their family and the suffering of their children.

"There are, at the moment, demands for even tougher, more painful, and even more unfair measures along the same ineffective and unsuccessful lines as in our recent past. There are demands for even bigger doses of a medicine which is proving deadly. ... And what is likely to follow are more painful, more unjust measures in the same hopeless and unsuccessful course of our recent past.

"There are demands for commitments that do not solve the problem but only put off temporarily the foretold death of our economy. Meanwhile, they put our national sovereignty up for collateral. They mortgage our wealth, but also the wealth we could obtain from our land and seas. They mortgage freedom, democracy, and national dignity."