The Shock Doctrine Comes to Greece’s Post

Dear Member,

This week, our weekly roundup from Greece comes on Monday, and we hope it’s a good week ahead! In this version of the AthensLive Wire, we focus on the Greek Post Office, ELTA. Why? Read below and you’ll understand. 

We woke up this week to the news that 204 ELTA branches— the country’s postal service —are closing down, leaving dozens of towns without basic services. Officially, it is part of a “restructuring” and “digital transformation.” In practice, it appears to be another chapter in Greece’s long-running privatisation playbook.

Behind the rhetoric of reform lies a network of publicly funded contracts and private gains: taxpayer money poured into ELTA’s “rescue,” followed by mass layoffs and lucrative outsourcing deals with private companies, such as ONEX.

As rural communities lose their last link to the state and the many digitally illiterate elderly in cities are abandoned to their fate, many Greeks are left wondering whether modernisation has become the new code word for privatisation.

The Shock Doctrine applied to the Hellenic Post

Greeks were taken by an unpleasant surprise this week as a News247 report revealed (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) the imminent closure of 204 branches of ELTA, the Hellenic Post, across the country, a decision leaving dozens of municipalities -including some in greater Athens- without a single post office as of Monday, 3 November.

The decision, presented as part of a wider corporate restructuring plan, was made without a public announcement, prompting anger and despair among local mayors, especially in rural areas where ELTA offices serve as a vital lifeline for pensioners and low-income residents who rely on them for pensions, benefit payments, and bill services - also, as a connection to the ‘outside world.’ 

This is the second wave of closures, as 227 branches (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) closed between 2020 and 2023. Only some 250 branches will remain operational after this.  

According (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) to ELTA sources, the closures aim to reduce losses caused by a steep decline in traditional mail, which has decreased by 80% over the past decade, and mounting operational costs. The network now generates only €15 million in annual revenue, against €90 million in expenses. The company, which was put under the Hellenic Corporation of Assets and Participations (HCAP) in 2018 by the then SYRIZA government, insists it will maintain access through smaller ELTA agencies and new “digital postmen” who would deliver to homes by appointment.

How is the government involved in this development, given that ELTA is under HCAP management? The members of the Supervisory Board of HCAP are appointed by decision of the Minister of Finance (Kyriakos Pierrakakis), and they, in turn, appoint the Chief Executive Officer, as SYRIZA reminded in a press release (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The backlash for the decision has been intense. Mayors from across Greece warn that the move will further isolate rural communities and accelerate population decline.

“In our municipality, 34,000 people, many of them elderly, will have to travel to another city just to collect their pension,” said (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) Tyrnavos mayor Asterios Tsikritsis. “This isn’t just a postal reform, it’s another blow to local life,” added (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) Nikos Vaitsis, mayor of Northern Tzoumerka. The Mayor of Zagori, Giorgos Soukouvelos, warned (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) that the closure of post offices is a “death knell for the countryside,” noting that “in many areas, there isn’t even a single bank branch left.” Similarly, the Mayor of Epidaurus, Tasos Chronis, spoke (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) of a broader plan to privatise social services, such as the distribution of pensions and benefits, stressing that “this is not an economic issue, it’s a political one.”

Residents in affected villages, such as Thouria and Atalanti, expressed frustration in local media, with many stating that they lack the digital skills or mobility to adapt. “I’m 86 years old, how am I supposed to get to Kalamata?” said one woman. “Here I paid my bills and got my pension. Now I can’t even use a bank card.”

While ELTA assures that no permanent staff will be laid off, union representatives warn of job losses among contractors and rising workloads for remaining postal workers.

For many in Greece’s shrinking countryside, the closures symbolise something larger — the steady withdrawal of essential public services, from schools and health centers to banks and post offices. For many remote communities, ELTA is the last tangible link to the state.

As one mayor put it: “When everything closes, people eventually stop coming back.”

The background: A preplanned ‘murder’

ELTA employees counter (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) that behind the appealing terms of “rationalisation” and “digital transformation” lies a pattern of systematic underfunding and deliberate neglect of the public postal service.

According (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) to the Panhellenic Federation of Postal Workers (POST), the current plan revives proposals tabled by the Hellenic Corporation of Assets and Participations (HCAP) in 2018, aiming to transfer public services to private contractors and gradually privatize the organization.

Employees also speak of years of insufficient state compensation (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) to ELTA for providing the Universal Postal Service (ie, the obligation to provide their service to the tiniest village in Greece). Combined with the absence of investment, this has led ELTA into chronic financial decline, despite its crucial social role across the country.

Facts lean towards the POST’s arguments.

In 2020, the New Democracy government injected €280 million of public funds (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) into the Hellenic Post (ELTA) as part of its bailout.

A significant portion of that sum was allocated toward voluntary redundancy packages for 1,500 employees.

Another €120 million, mostly through direct awards, was granted to the private company ONEX to handle mail transportation.

In short, a private firm was contracted with public money to take over a key ELTA function just after ELTA had been stripped of the staff needed to perform it. As a 2024 report (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) by EfSyn puts it: “The outsourcing became necessary after ELTA spent much of the €280 million on staff reductions, leaving it unable to meet its delivery obligations.”

At the same time, ELTA continued to report heavy losses. 

It should be noted that ONEX also controls the Syros and Elefsina shipyards and is active in offshore wind projects.

In effect, the government achieved what it promotes as a “liberal reform” through a threefold outcome, EfSyn noted (Öffnet in neuem Fenster):

1. Shrinking the public sector by laying off 1,500 permanent employees.

2. Privatising a subsidised public service, since ELTA receives compensation as the provider of Greece’s Universal Postal Service.

3. Financially supporting a private contractor, who benefits from state funding while presenting himself as a “successful entrepreneur,” where the public sector supposedly failed.

4. Additionally, why is ELTA incurring losses when private courier companies are thriving?

In October 2024, the private postal company ACS sold 20% of its shares for €74 million (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), highlighting how the public service’s contraction has fueled expansion in the private sector. The company recorded a 5% increase (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) in revenue in 2024 compared to 2023. Interestingly, in October 2023, ACS had inaugurated (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) its new Sorting Center, in the presence of government officials, including the ‘master of privatisations,’ the then minister of National Economy and Finance, Kostis Hatzidakis.

Many pointed (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) to Hatzidakis’ work behind the current decision for the closing down of 204 ELTA branches. Hatzidakis denied (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) any involvement. 

As to how ELTA came to be loss-making, it is also worth remembering 2022 reports, revealing that former ND MP Andreas Patsis (who had taken (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) a 4.3 million euros loan from the bank to buy bad loans from the same bank worth some 63 million euros) had also secured contracts (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) without a bid with ELTA for providing ‘legal advice,’ deals that brought him €822,000 euros within two years. The first contract was published in October 2020 (when the government had already started ELTA’s ‘restructuring’), the last one in September 2022. 

It is also worth noting that, according to the Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Commission (EETT), the Hellenic Post (ELTA) Group reported (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) improved financial results in 2024, with revenues reaching €249.05 million, a 2.4% increase from €243.29 million in 2023. At the same time, losses were significantly reduced to €8.37 million, compared to €28.74 million the previous year. Revenues from ELTA Courier, which has since merged with the parent company, reached €66.26 million, marking a 10% increase from €60.38 million in 2023.

In retrospect, the ELTA ‘sudden death’ story mirrors the classic pattern of Greek privatisations: neglect a public enterprise until it falters, allow citizens to lose trust in it, and then present privatisation as the only solution.

Only after fifteen years of economic turmoil, the Greeks have stopped asking why private firms rush to acquire supposedly “unviable” public assets. They already know the answer.

What next?

The opposition SYRIZA party warned (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) the government not to proceed with the decision to close down ELTA branches before the issue is debated in Parliament, calling for an emergency meeting of the relevant committees on Monday. PASOK and all other opposition parties, both right and left, also voiced their objections.

The issue has also brought discontent within the ruling New Democracy. So far, six ruling-party MPs — Vassilis Oikonomou, Markos Kafouros, Katerina Monogiou, Neoklis Kritikos, Giannis Giorgos, and Dionysia Avgerinopoulou — have submitted separate parliamentary questions on the matter. Dimitris Markopoulos has also publicly distanced himself from the decision, while Stelios Petsas and Athanasios Kavvadas conveyed local complaints to the Finance Committee. Insiders note (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) that more ND MPs are expected to express dissent in the coming days.

Following the outcry, ELTA management partially reversed course, stating (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on Saturday evening that only city branches would close in this phase. Rural offices, they added, will follow within three months “to give time to explain the rationale behind the decision.”

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That’s all for this week; please forward this email to anyone you think might find it interesting and ask them to join our international community! 

The AL team