The writer Petros Márkaris (Istanbul, 1937) is one of the great masters of the Mediterranean crime novel, along with Manuel Vázquez Montalbán and the Italian Andrea Camilleri. Father of the famous Greek commissioner Kostas Jaritos, Márkaris is also one of the country’s great minds, and does not hesitate to bring to his novels the problems that hurt Greeks, from the economic crisis to the poverty left by the pandemic. At 86 years old, he receives La Vanguardia at his house in the center of Athens, still shocked by the historic floods that have devastated central Greece.
How did you spend this summer in Athens?
It has been an absolute tragedy and an absolute disaster. First the heat. I settled in Athens in 1964. I don’t remember any other summer as hot as this year. The second thing was the fires. All the forests in northeastern Greece have died. They are all burned. And not only there, also in Attica. After all this the floods come. There must be a curse, otherwise I don’t understand it!
Whose fault is it?
When we talk about fires, I must tell you that Greece has a long tradition and experience with forest fires. There is, therefore, a great responsibility of the Government, the regional administrations and the city councils, which never took the necessary measures. But the floods… it’s the first time. Let’s be frank. It’s not something we have experience with. Nobody was prepared.
The Government of Kiriakos Mitsotakis blames these disasters on the climate crisis.
If you see what is also happening in Spain, in Italy, in Hawaii… there is no doubt that there is a big problem called climate change and in the last decade it is becoming more and more aggressive. And everyone is looking elsewhere. Especially governments, which only care about economic growth. There are only groups of young people who fight against everyone. I fear that what we knew as the Mediterranean climate and Mediterranean nature is going to disappear.
Has there been a lack of prevention?
In the case of fires, everyone knows that after one fire great measures must be taken to prevent the next one, and no one does anything because leaving it in the condition it is in is beneficial for making money, building houses and making profits. It is something that has history, that is not new. No Greek government has ever taken appropriate measures for fear of losing support. As long as personal goals take priority, we will not have results.
All this is happening in a country that was finally emerging from the harsh financial crisis. Then came the pandemic, the effects of war…
From 2009 until today we have never had a break. It’s been 14 years now that we have had one disaster after another. The economic crisis, let’s face it, was partly our fault. The pandemic was not only a Greek problem, but a universal one. But my generation never anticipated that this country that was so beautiful would end up in this situation. Before I was listening to old people talking and psychologically it is disastrous, because one of the few privileges of Greece was a mild climate. Now we have nothing left.
Have Greek citizens resigned?
There is a decline in interest in politics, especially among new generations. They are not involved, and not even interested. I think it is a big mistake and it is something that will have consequences. Both in my generation and the next, the interest in politics was great. This is not like that. We grew up in a society with many different values, and now our societies have only one value, which is money. It is a dangerous thing, and we see it in how humanistic studies are being lost. Everyone thinks that if you study technology, economics, business administration you will have a high salary, while in the US they have six-month contracts.
Perhaps the reason is that these young people were educated in a very harsh economic crisis.
Yes, these young people have grown up during the crisis and this means that they have grown up in families with very complicated conditions. This makes them think that the sooner they get a job with secure money, the better. Another problem is that they now have to stay at their parents’ house until they are forty.
In the last elections, the Greek right won with a large majority. Because?
Because many Syriza voters were disappointed with the party and returned to the safe side. Syriza, and this was his big mistake, promised that they were going to change Europe and end the memorandums and hold referendums, and then they had to abide by all the conditions.
Don’t you think Mitsotakis did it right?
He did well in what any other center-right politician would have done well. His great privilege is that, unlike Alexis Tsipras, he found a friendlier atmosphere in the EU. There have been scandals in his party, but also in others, and if you live in Greece, you are prepared to see scandals.
He has written about the crisis and the pandemic. What does he write about now?
About the struggle between humanistic and economic studies. Maybe I’ll write about climate change next, I don’t know.
What would Kostas Jaritos do?
I haven’t asked him yet!
Are you thinking about retiring?
As long as my mind helps me with ideas, I will continue writing.
