Cyprus’ Explosion: Financial Crisis and Anti-austerity Mobilization

Abstract

Cyprus was the last country of the Eurozone to employ the austerity recipe in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. In 2012, due to its inability to stabilize the country’s banking sector, the government launched negotiations with the EU in the direction of securing a bailout agreement that would allow the country’s banks to remain afloat. The austerity terms that would accompany the prospective deal provoked a wave of public outrage and protest. In March 2013, the negotiations’ failure and the imposition of capital controls and levies on bank deposits sparked a second, equally short-lived round of protest. Despite that, the financial meltdown did have an important impact on the Cypriot economy. Notwithstanding the anti-austerity activists’ efforts to construct coalitions with societal groups in order to counter the austerity measures, organized resistance to the crisis’ consequences was scarce and delimited, from a certain point on, to isolated or uncoordinated actions.