HELSINKI: In a traditional cafe in a working-class neighbourhood of Athens, 55-year-old musician Stelios Maragakis said he has the solution to Greece’s debt crisis: ditch the euro.
“We must return to the drachma. The only way to save Greece is the drachma,” he said, sipping from a small glass of spirit, Greek music sounding in the background.
It remains a minority view, but demands by Greece’s creditors for more tough reforms are increasing the appeal of the idea among the country’s 11 million inhabitants. upport for dropping out of the eurozone has risen to 30 percent in polls taken in recent weeks from the 20 percent level it had held for years, said Costas Panagopoulos, the head of ALCO polling institute.
“It is still a minority but it is growing,” he said. The reasons, he said, were not just austerity measures and seemingly endless talks with Greece’s lenders but also open talk among some politicians about regaining control over the country’s economic affairs by leaving the euro. The drachma, one of the world’s earliest currencies, has its origins in the word “to grasp” and was dropped and reintroduced several times before being replaced by the euro in 2002.
