This is what popular rage tastes like: politicians heckled, abused, attacked at restaurants, cafes and on the Greek streets

A series of articles has appeared in corporate press in Greece, showing the difficulties many politicians are faced with here when attempting an appearance in public. When spotted eating at a restaurant, ex-PM Karamanlis was approached by a woman shouting “shame on you, all you know how to do is eat”. A few weeks ago ex-president of parliament Apostolos Kaklamanis found refuge in a cafe’s toilets to avoid the crowd’s “congratulations” on his party’s efforts. Corporate media are now full of anecdotes like this: about the second minister of Economics who was forced to leave a beach in Athens; the once all-powerful minister of Shipping who is now heckled on a daily basis by a group of kids in his home island of Kos. The heckling and abuse that the ex-minister of Finance, Giorgos Alogoskoufis, has received in virtually all his recent visits to London. The house of Akis Tsohatzopoulos, a once-powerful figure in the social-democrat PASOK, which has turned into a sort of a monument of discontent, with its outer wall filled with messages of hatred. Or Giorgos Voulgarakis, who was heading to a cafe in the upper middle class area of Kolonaki only to be confronted (there, even…) with a small mob of people demanding to know “where the money is”. Random drivers beeping their car horns in disapproval when driving outside the parliament. The police have issued new, tighter measures of protection for the politicians and advise them to use small, unmarked cars rather than their beloved limos and SUVs for the time being. The stories are endless, it seems.

What will this translate into concretely is hard to tell, of course – these are the early days of Greece under the IMF. One is for certain: we’ve got the rage!