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Anastasia Balezdrova

The huge size the "I do not pay” movement has reached is increasingly commented these days. The protest against toll payments for the roads that are not build yet and for the bad ones was approved by the majority of Greek society at the beginning but its growing into a movement of non-punching public transport tickets made unbelieving not only politicians but ordinary citizens too.

I witnessed a similar incident in the trolley lately. While checking the passengers the ticket-collector came across a young girl who said she had no ticket because she did not want to pay the public transport fare. He wrote down her personal data and informed her that she would have to pay a fine of 60 euros. At that time an old man muttered, "if you do not want to buy a ticket, pay the fine now. You’d better go to Tsipras to pay it for you.”

The “I do not pay” movement became the subject of sharp attacks by politicians and media, especially after a group of youths broke some of the ticket punching devices in one of the underground stations. According to eyewitnesses, they shouted slogans the movement used during its campaigns.

At the same time, the president of the left coalition SYRIZA Alexis Tsipras and MPs from the party attended the last barriers “openings” on the roads throughout the country which made the critics of the movement associate it with a specific political party.

They claim from the “I do not pay” movement that they had nothing to do with any political party.

"The party SYRIZA was silent when we started the organization a year and a half ago. But now, when they see how many people are united and how strong our movement is, they all try to gain political advantage.

We never had, and now we have no relations with any political party. Everyone can have their political or party affiliations, but we disregard them during the meetings and campaigns. We have decided the movement to be for the people, without any interference of political parties neither from the left, nor from the right, nor from the centre of the political spectrum. Things are completely clear.”

Just a day ago the chairman of the far-right party LAOS George Karatzaferis stated that the movement was dangerous for the Greek society because it would lead to anarchy. According to Joseph Papadopoulos, a member of the movement, that was not strange, "because the politicians are accustomed to such things," but "everyone should speak carefully. It is obvious that our movement troubles them, because it is partisan and therefore they try to offend us. Even when "big" journalists invite us to participate in TV shows they invite politicians too to humiliate and slander the movement."

The fact is that there wasn’t so much a passenger response to the free traveling in public transport. Most of the people punch their tickets as usual despite the campaigns of the movement. But why does the movement believe that it is not appropriate the citizens to pay for this service?

The movement believes that "since public transport is defined as a means of mass transportation and people who do not have cars use it everyday, they should not pay for it. This applies to a greater extent to a country governed by a socialist government. When Andreas Papandreou, the father of today's prime minister, first took power in 1981 he had introduced free public transport for workers in early mornings and late afternoons, i.e. when they went and returned from work. This is the point of the definition "means of mass transportation."

All these years the management of public transport companies was stealing their money. The companies were losing not because of the cheap tickets. And now, after cutting the salaries and the pensions, the government unfairly increased the ticket prices by 40%. This makes people angry. That's why our motto is "I do not pay for their crisis." The crisis is the result of their actions, the people are not to be blamed for it. Mismanagement in general and of finances and utility companies has led to the current situation."
 
However, there are skeptics in the ranks of the movement who believe that non-payment of tickets is probably exaggerated a protest. They do not think that the people who do not want to punch tickets are wrong either.

Joseph Papadopoulos was explicit that the people who had broken the ticket punching devices at the University of Athens underground station were not members of the movement. He said that during the meetings a special emphasis was laid on all members not to cause any damage.

On the other hand, he believed that "some others" try to take advantage of the dynamics and the massiveness of the movement, “whether political parties like SYRIZA or LAOS or any other, or bums who walk the streets and want to cause damage. This is a kind of provocation. We have no desire to cause damage. At least for now.
 
I do not really know how we would respond if things change in the future and the country begins to use violence. Anyway, it is very difficult to withhold the crowd. That's why sometimes we use the saying "Vox populi, vox Dei."

According to Joseph Papadopoulos, small and medium entrepreneurs threat for not paying taxes, social securities and any liabilities to the state would fail. "If only a number of people state they would not pay their taxes they will not achieve anything and will only get in trouble. This will work only if held on a large scale by the people. Then we can expect that there may be some effect."

The bill of the Ministry of Transport which is expected to be passed in the coming days provides a fine of 200 euros for non-payment of tolls and allows the driving license and the registration documents and numbers to be taken away for 20 days. Cases of refusal will be considered violations of the traffic rules and the free traveling in public transport becomes a criminal offense.

The members of the "I do not pay" movement do not intend to stop their campaigns after the vote on the law. They believe the new measures have no legal basis.

"You can not criminalize the lifting of the barrier, nor to define it a violation of traffic rules. What do they want to tell us? That traffic police officers will come to ask for our personal data, because we lift the barrier? There is no logic in this and I think that if they introduce this measure they will get into trouble.

I would not give my personal data in such cases. What will the traffic police office do? Will he take me to the court for a fast-track procedure? Then it will get really funny because the movement will not sit on its hands. If even one member is taken to court for this reason we will witness events like those in Egypt. Here’s how revolutions start.

People are tired already. Unfair measures are being taken. Not everything that is legal is moral. An immoral ruler makes immoral laws, especially within this corruption with the owners of concession companies who are  like bossed to him because they helped him to ascend to power and he, in turn, repays by giving them a state project.”

At today's meeting the movement participants from the region of Attica discussed how they would respond in case the authorities "dare to implement the new law. We will decide how the movement members will react if traffic officer stops them and asks for their personal data, whether other member will go with them to support them if they are being taken to court for fast-track procedure."

Joseph Papadopoulos again emphasized that the movement will continue its protest actions as before. “We will lift the barriers and go without paying, but without causing damage too. At least for now.”

They said from the movement they did not intend to resort to other protest actions.

"We think things have not gone to the extremes and that with our massive campaigns we will force them to retreat. They can not do anything else if nobody pays. What will they do if, for example, 60 or 70 or 80 percent of the people stop paying? Will they send all these people in jail? It doesn’t make any sense. Things will go to the European Parliament and Court. They can not criminalize the lifting of a barrier which belongs to a private company. And on roads for which we have paid thousand times at prices dozens of times higher because they were re-evaluated.”

Participants in the movement said they were determined not to allow interference of persons that could cause problems.

"This is one of the things still to discuss. Because there are more passionate people who could make mistakes which would send away some people from the movement. And if they sit back on their sofas they will never get up because of disappointment.

So, we fight tooth and nail against any party "hats" and take our decisions in open meetings welcoming all who wish to attend. This is the reason more and more people to join the movement.”