PM Mitsotakis provokes Greeks: Smile even if you are barefoot and poor

I live in a country where a very wealthy Prime Minister who seems to have lost contact with reality and society tries to convince Greeks that “if you live in poverty and are barefoot, you can still smile!”

During a visit to Ioannina, Epirus in North-West Greece, on Wednesday, PM Mitsotakis showed the crowd a pictures form the 1960, featuring three barefoot girls smiling to the camera of US photographer Robert Mc Cabe.

Χαμογελάτε πτωχοί pic.twitter.com/o3HOWpgOfM

— Ιερώνυμος boss (@JeronymoBoss2) April 5, 2023

He called the picture “a symbol for the future!”

“Three little girls who don’t even have shoes, but who have a huge smile. Through this photo, I think it is the best symbol of a Greece that endures, has a future, has a perspective and finally knows that it can look up, firmly, boldly, aim only forward…”, the PM said enthusiastically about his ….

These three little girls, two of whom are barefoot and one circumcised, are the Three Girls, children of Epirus in 1961. They do not belong to the agenda and propaganda of Mr. Mitsotakis, but to the history of a hurting, ruined and battered Greece.

The picture was taken by Robert McCabe in the village Mega Peristeri of Ioannina in 1961, in the hard years 1950 and 1960 in poverty as the country was struggling with the wounds of the WWII and the Greek civil war. Hundreds of thousands of citizens were migrating in order to secure a better future for their families.

Is this picture really an example for the ND conservative and neo-liberal government indeed a… guide for the future? What is the message to the Greeks? “Smile despite poverty?”

The irony is that he made such a statement while he was presenting a ND development program for the still underdeveloped region of Epirus.

in the context of the presentation of the ND development program!

It is worth noting that it was not the first time that Kyriakos Mitsotakis used the photograph in question as an example.

In December 2018, as leader of the official opposition, he showed the picture during a budget debate in the Parliament, report newspaper documento.

Greeks lash out at PM with biting comments

The cheering PM with the barefoot children has hundreds of social media users lashing out with irony and biting comments at the PM posting pictures of barefoot children in the hard years in Greece.

“Which one of these barefoot smiling children is Mitsotakis?”

Ποιο από αυτά τα ξυπόλυτα παιδάκια που χαμογελάει συμβολίζοντας το μέλλον της χώρας είναι ο Κυριάκος Μητσοτάκης; pic.twitter.com/yhIrhxH9fY

— Kostas.Vaxevanis (@KostasVaxevanis) April 6, 2023

“Mitsotakis takes strength by looking every morning at this wonderful picture pf February 1946 of one girl and three boys walking barefoot in the snow in Apsraggelos, Ioannina, to go to school.”

Αυτή την υπέροχη φωτογραφία, με το κορίτσι και τα τρία αγόρια που φοράνε κουρέλια και περπατάνε ξυπόλητα πάνω στο χιόνι για να πάνε σχολείο, στη σκιά του Κάστρου, στους Ασπράγγελους Ιωαννίνων, τον Φλεβάρη του 1946, κοιτάζει κάθε πρωί ο Μητσοτάκης.
Ετσι παίρνει δύναμη! Από την… pic.twitter.com/LJXFxzKcP9

— Areti Athanasiou (@AretiAthanasiu) April 6, 2023

“These barefoot, cheerful kids have us live in 1942 and 1950.” (picture of happy traveler Mitsotakis and his wife.)

4 χρόνια τώρα αυτά τα ξυπόλητα χαρούμενα παιδάκια, μας εχουν να ζουμε στο 1942 και στο 1950 pic.twitter.com/PRuJRlHhLs

— ▫️Έφη Βερ. (@Efie_Ver_) April 6, 2023

“These three little girls, two of whom are barefoot and one with a bandage, are the Three Freinds, children of Epirus in 1961. – They do not belong to the agenda and propaganda of Mr. Mitsotakis, but to the history of a hurting, ruined and battered Greece.

Αυτά τα τρία κοριτσάκια που τα δύο είναι ξυπόλητα και το ένα ποδεμένο, είναι οι Τρεις Φίλες, παιδιά της Ηπείρου του 1961.
Δεν ανήκουν στην ατζέντα και στην προπαγάνδα του κυρίου Μητσοτάκη, αλλά στην ιστορία μιας πονεμένης, ερειπωμένης και ρημαγμένης Ελλάδας. pic.twitter.com/SHfp8u2ZqE

— Anichneftis (@Anichneftis) December 18, 2018

Back to the 50’s Trumpism

Worth noting is that last a conservative ND supporter from Canada, probably a 2nd generation migrant, hailed also the years of poverty and struggling thus claiming that “people were happy because they praised God.”

“A loaf of bread, an onion and a plate of olives for 6 mouths. And yet, these mouths did not stop saying “thank God.” Today we have learned to say “we don’t have”. – Apparently the senior who lives good on a Canadian pension  does not know that we have Food and Fuel coupons and Household and Easter Baskets in Greece 2023 of his favorite Prime Minister.

Note that the picture is dated from the Greek Civil War times.

PS Trumpism with its back to the 1950’s dogma has come to Greece…

*thumnbail: via documento.gr