EUROZONE-GREECE/HUNGARY Austerity? We've had it for years – Hungary's Greek minority

Record ID: 146499

  • Title: EUROZONE-GREECE/HUNGARY Austerity? We've had it for years – Hungary's Greek minority
  • Date: 16th July 2015
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF OLD PHOTOS ON CAFE WALL SHOWING PAST OF VILLAGE
  • Embargoed: 31st July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Hungary
  • Country: Hungary
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA6IAZOL1572HWGG3LHHJZ130YF
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Greeks living in the Hungarian village of Beloiannisz since the 1950s said on Wednesday (July 15) that they sympathise with relatives back in Greece struggling with the country's debt crisis, but also think they could have been more thrifty.
    Their sleepy village near the Danube river south of Budapest was built for some of the thousands of refugees who fled Greece after their side lost the 1946-1949 civil war against a right-wing government backed by the United States.
    Hungary, led during the Cold War by Moscow-backed communists, welcomed in the left-wing refugees. Construction started in 1950 and more than 400 squat terraced houses were quickly built in what was called Gorogfalva (Greeks' village).
    The village was later named after Nikos Beloyannis, a communist leader and Greek resistance hero during World War Two.
    There were 1,850 inhabitants back then but most have since returned to Greece, many in the 1980s when exiled refugees from the civil war were allowed to return.
    Some 200-300 still live in Beloiannisz and many work in local industries or in nearby Budapest. The village has a Greek Orthodox church and street names written in both Hungarian and Greek. Many residents still have relatives living in Greece.
    78-year-old former welder Sztefopulosz Dimitrisz, who came to Hungary as a teenager when his family fled Greece, plays with his two grandchildren in the central village square.
    He gets by on a pension of 120,000 forints ($422.98) after 43 years of work while his relatives in Greece receive pensions worth twice as much, he said.
    "We have been living under austerity measures since our early childhood, this is how we grew up but they [residents of Greece] did not, they lived a generous and comfortable life," he said.
    "They [visitors from Greece] came here with 100 or 500 dollars, which was not a lot of money for them but it was huge money for us and they lived here in clover. So now, what I can say to them, is a little patience, and they will need to tighten the belt somewhat, so have patience," he added.
    In the nearby cafe, the radio plays Greek music. The shop assistant also comes from a Greek family.
    As she makes frappes, the popular Greek froth-topped iced coffee, Nikolau Efdokia, 45, says Greeks are hard-working but may have lived beyond their means and will have to pay a price now that their country is on the verge of default.
    "What I think is that while living here in Hungary we had austerity for years, and every year we had to tighten the belt even more, they have to cope with it all at once now," she said.
    Hungary imposed strict austerity measures in the 1990s as the country adjusted to the end of communism in 1989 and return to capitalism. This averted a meltdown and led to faster growth.
    The 2008 financial crisis again hit the country badly and it had to ask for an International Monetary Fund bailout and cut costs. Now its finances are stable again but life for many Hungarians is still hard.
    There are some who believe the government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras cheated the Greeks by passing a package of tough austerity measures, even though a majority of voters rejected them in a recent referendum.
    "The people [in Greece] voted against austerity and in two weeks time here comes the austerity package. What is this if not the deceit of the Greek people? I feel totally sorry for the Greek people. Perhaps they are also to blame because they took out big loans and they are not paying them back, but even then a nation, a country, should not be deceived like the Greek state just did," 33-year-old resident Zsuzsanna Vasziliki Gregus said.
    But sympathy was not unanimous.
    "The Greeks got a fair amount of money, they cannot complain that they did not get money but now they will have to pay it back somehow," post office worker Szonja Dimopulu, who earns 230 euros a month, said.
    Nearly a third of economists polled by Reuters still expect Greece to eventually leave the euro and the International Monetary Fund said Athens needs far more debt relief than European governments have been willing to contemplate.
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