EDITOR’S NOTE (Nick Stamatakis) This video captures, in 37 seconds, a significant part of modern Greece’s history, along with the disastrous effects on the country’s political life of the “mafia families,” such as the one headed by Marika and her husband, Constantine. Marika was born in 1930 into the Giannoukos family, one of the wealthiest families in Greece, at the end of World War II. This fact alone reveals a great deal about the kind of privilege she was born into. But she also knew the other side of life, as she was stricken by polio at a young age… In 1953, she married Constantine Mitsotakis after a huge love affair that took place on both sides of the Atlantic, with significant parts being played around her polio therapy sessions in New York.
She was known to be outspoken, and she frequently intervened in her husband’s political decisions. In the video below, she describes the total ineptness of her grandson, Costas Bacoyiannis, who has served as the Mayor of Athens, causing several disasters…
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