by Christos Zabounis
In Greek, hooded rioters are known as koukouloforoi, or “batalachides” – troublemakers and street thugs. They made a name for themselves in Greece during the years of the bailout memoranda. Today, in the absence of a mass movement, they continue their “struggle” from behind their keyboards. Yet their eyes and souls remain fixed on France. They eagerly await the “import” of an uprising, as is happening in Italy and Belgium. They either fail to recognise, or perhaps refuse to admit, the exhaustion – to the point of complete burnout – of domestic activist groups. After so many years of revolutionary training, what has it all achieved? All, or almost all, of the austerity measures have been implemented. The recovery of the Greek economy does not favour their plans. On the contrary, the collapse of the French economy is “music to the ears” of the casseurs, from the verb casser, meaning “to break” or “to smash.” With a strong productive base, a powerful industrial sector and considerable export activity, Macron’s France fell into the trap of coûte que coûte – a policy of providing benefits at any cost. This approach began with the Socialists’ rise to power in 1981, under François Mitterrand. In other words, something akin to the “there’s money” promises made by Andreas Papandreou and his son in Greece. I read in the French press about the case of a 21-year-old trainee chef who was arrested during a preventive check in the Bastille area. In his bag, the police found empty alcohol bottles, acetone, three lighters and a siphon. “I came to Paris to celebrate my birthday. We had a barbecue and drank a few vodkas,” he told the investigating magistrate. An examination of his mobile phone revealed, among other things, that he had been “practising” how to ignite a Molotov cocktail. He had previously searched ChatGPT for instructions on how to make one. Greece, ten years on – now in France.
