Something in the water reveals the web of special interests, diplomatic ties and corporate influence behind the privatization of Greece's public services. The film follows the story of the fight for public water in Thessaloniki, where, despite 98.2% of voters choosing to maintain public control, the Troika continues to push for privatization, with French multinational Suez set to buy a significant share.
At the centre of the film is the Greek privatization fund, Taiped; a troika imposed institution riddled by corruption scandals, tasked with the fire-sale of a wide range of Greek public services and state assets. On the board of Taiped sits EU representative Philippe Boin who also doubles as Chief of the Economic Service to the French Embassy in Athens, where his main role is to increase profits for his country's big multinationals such as Suez and Veolia, who look set to benefit from these forced privatizations..
The release of the film comes just weeks after the Greek Government was forced to pass an ‘Omnibus Bill’ in order to establish an even bigger version of Taiped, known as The Superfund. The President of The Superfund will be Jacques le Pape, a former employee of IMF head Christine Lagarde during her time as French Finance minister. As part of Lagarde’s Cabinet, Le Pape worked directly under Cabinet-Chief Stephan Richard, a former Veolia director. As well as holding the presidency, EU representatives will wield veto power over the decisions of The Superfund for ninety-nine years, effectively placing control of Greek public services and assets in the hands of the Troika and special interests for the next century.
Greek activists and unionists have already reacted to these developments, shutting off the water supply to Syriza offices as well as leaving the email boxes of many of the country’s MPs unusable after more than 3.3 million messages of protest were sent. More actions are planned in the coming weeks.
Produced by Public Services International