Greek drama

With ‘knife at its throat,’ Athens chills

Despite talk of a run on banks, an eerie sense of calm pervaded the Greek capital Friday.

Click Here: Crystal Palace Shop

ATHENS — The headlines predicted a panic but there was no sign of it Friday in the streets of the Greek capital.

Comments from a European Central Bank Governing Board member leaked Thursday in the international press suggested that a recent increase in cash withdrawals from Greek banks — almost €40 billion since January — would spike into a full-fledged run after Athens and its creditors reached an impasse in negotiations aimed at avoiding a default and exit from the euro.

Those talks have now been kicked upstairs to an emergency meeting of European Union leaders Monday in Brussels.

But despite the headlines hanging in the kiosks declaring “Last Chance for Deal,” “Knife at our Throat,” and “SOS Greece” in Athens Friday, there was no sign of a run on deposits.

Ordinary Greeks seemed to heed the words of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who on Friday reassured the world that anyone “betting on crisis and terror scenarios will be proven wrong.”

Athens small-business owner Dimitris, 38, was representative of the mood. “I just don’t believe there can be a ‘proper’ default,” he said. “It would entail too much money lost on both sides and instability that goes well beyond finances. At least that’s what I think.”

There were no queues outside banks, the shopping district of Ermou was buzzing and the tourist season was in full swing. Under the midday sun, downtown Athens was crawling with TV crews from around the world filming outside banks, but there was little to no action in the background.

“Some analysts have been surprised that there has not been an even more dramatic flight” of deposits, said Nick Malkoutzis, editor of the non-partisan economic analysis website MacroPolis. “I think this is probably down to the fact that some Greeks have become immune to the fears of a Grexit, having been bombarded with such headlines for the last five years. It’s also the case that a lot of Greeks have little or nothing left in their accounts and cannot be panicked into acting.”

Surprisingly, there have also been spikes in personal consumption, with the sales of new cars for instance, up by as much as 10 percent in the past few months, probably explained by people putting their newly withdrawn money in more stable assets.

The only signs betraying public nervousness were two consecutive demonstrations outside the Greek parliament on Wednesday and Thursday: one asking the government to not betray the people by imposing more austerity; the other to make sure Greece stays in the euro. Both were civilized affairs, unlike the spectacular clashes between demonstrators and the police that Athens has seen in previous years.

Greece appears to be holding its breath until the special EU summit Monday, a meeting that looks likely to be the decisive moment in the six-month ordeal that has been the negotiations between Greece and its creditors.

Tsipras, the left-wing prime minister who is often seen as the conciliatory voice between Greek ministers and the trio of lenders, said he’s positive that “there will be a solution based on respecting EU rules and democracy which would allow Greece to return to growth in the euro.”

Another week in what has seemed a repetitive cycle of talks and headlines that mean little for the lives of ordinary people came to an end with yet another crisis meeting to look forward to. The governing Syriza party now says Monday’s summit is “exactly what they wanted.”