Meritocracy

A recent survey of 602 Greeks who returned home after living abroad highlights systemic hurdles hindering Greece's progress. Conducted by Kapa Research for the National Documentation Center, the study reveals that most respondents (89%) left Greece for economic reasons, spending an average of 3-9 years overseas.

Contrary to the constitutional principles of equality and meritocracy is a provision of law that does not count teachers’ prior experience in private education in the process of grading them for employment in public schools.

The most recent survey by Dianeosis on "What Greeks believe" includes the question: What do you think Greece will look like in 10 years' time? More than half of the respondents said they think the country will have a lot more immigrants and that citizens will be more tolerant of diversity.

Thousands of protesters gathered in central Athens Friday to oppose government plans to introduce privately run universities, following weeks of demonstrations including scores of university building occupations by students.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Saturday visited the Koukaki neighborhood at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens and spoke to citizens, defending his government's legacy and pledging to continue the progress made during his four-year term. 

Even after it succeeded in installing filters that secure some degree of meritocracy in public sector appointments, the Greek state apparatus remains incapable of producing natural leaders able to serve in a continuous and politically unbiased manner.

There are too many problems that young people have to face in Greece, as the latter has not been a hospitable place for many decades, and that was one of the main reasons why many young people decided to leave. This was also stressed by the Minister of State, Mr Akis Skertos, speaking to ERT channel about the brain drain and how it will be reversed.

Taxation

The Interior Ministry is working on drastic reforms in the public sector to improve efficiency, promote meritocracy, root out corruption and, ultimately serve the public more effectively.

The public sector is under constant fire, accused of being problematic, unproductive, and often even corrupt. However, we tend to forget that, to a significant degree, we are the Greek state. Many are employed in the public sector and we elect the officials responsible for staffing it - and supposedly evaluating the performance of that staff and ensuring that everything is above board.

The Greek brain drain has been a hot topic of discussion over the past few years, most recently as a result of Labor Minister Yiannis Vroutsis' announcement of a pilot program for luring back 500 Greek scientists and experts by subsidizing 70 percent of their salaries for a period of one year.