Greece’s debt crisis
Witness History16 Juli 2025

Greece’s debt crisis

It was a week that brought the future of Greece and the Eurozone to the brink. Ten years ago, on 6 July the Greek people voted against the terms of a financial bailout which included raising taxes and slashing welfare spending.

Greece owed €323bn to various countries and banks within Europe. Its banks were closed. A quarter of the population and half of Greece’s young people were unemployed.

The morning after the vote, Euclid Tsakalotos was brought in to replace Yanis Varoufakis as finance minister. His predecessor had accused European leaders of “terrorism” in their handling of the crisis. Parachuted in to last-ditch talks with angry European leaders, Euclid Tsakalotos describes to Josephine McDermott the make-or-break 17-hour summit in Brussels.

He reveals that when Angela Merkel, the leader of Greece’s biggest lender Germany, said she was leaving the room because she could not accept what was on the table, Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, actually locked the door to stop her leaving and force an agreement to be reached.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.

(Photo: A queue outside a bank in Greece in 2015. Credit: Getty Images)

Avsnitt(2000)

Monica McWilliams’ role in the Northern Ireland peace process

Monica McWilliams’ role in the Northern Ireland peace process

Monica McWilliams played one of the most pivotal roles in the Northern Ireland peace process. She spent two years at the negotiating table which finally resulted in the Good Friday Agreement on 10 April 1998. That made her a joint signatory to an international peace accord – something that very few women in the world manage to be. She speaks to Alys Harte about the representation of women in the historic retelling of Northern Ireland’s peace process and why women are so often written out of the history they make.(Picture: Monica McWilliams. Credit: Getty Images)

9 Mars 202310min

First all-women peacekeeping unit

First all-women peacekeeping unit

In 2007, the UN deployed its first all-female contingent of peacekeepers in Liberia in West Africa. The country was still recovering from its long civil war when the Indian policewomen arrived.In this programme first broadcast in 2019, Jill McGivering hears from Seema Dhundia of India’s Central Reserve Police Force who led the unit.(Photo: Seema Dhundia. Credit: Getty Images)

8 Mars 20238min

Mexico's first female presidential hopeful

Mexico's first female presidential hopeful

In 1982, human rights campaigner Rosario Ibarra became the first woman and first political outsider to stand for president in Mexico.Her presidential bid was a direct challenge to the country’s long-established male-dominated political system. Ibarra’s motivation to stand was both political and highly personal. She wanted to draw attention to the country’s “disappeared” political prisoners, among them her own son. Mike Lanchin has been hearing about Rosario Ibarra from her eldest daughter, Rosario Piedra. This is a CTVC production for BBC World Service.(Picture: Rosario Ibarra campaigning. Credit: The Rosario family)

7 Mars 20238min

Octavia E. Butler: Visionary black sci-fi writer

Octavia E. Butler: Visionary black sci-fi writer

In 1995, Octavia E Butler became the first author to receive a MacArthur “genius” award for science fiction writing. From a young age she dreamed of writing books, but faced many challenges, including poverty, sexism and racism in the publishing industry. She died aged 58 in 2006. Alex Collins speaks to her friend and fellow author Nisi Shawl.(Photo: Octavia E. Butler. Credit: Getty Images)

6 Mars 20238min

Zoran Djindjic: The murder of Serbia's prime minister

Zoran Djindjic: The murder of Serbia's prime minister

Zoran Djindjic, the prime minister of Serbia, was assassinated on 12 March 2003. He was murdered by an associate of former president, Slobodan Milosevic.Gordana Matkovic served in Djindjic's cabinet. Two decades on from the murder, she shares her memories of that time with Matt Pintus.(Photo: Zoran Djindjic poster held up during remembrance gathering. Credit: Getty Images)

3 Mars 202310min

The museum at the end of the world

The museum at the end of the world

In 1992, the late zoologist Nigel Bonner opened one of the world's most remote museums, the South Georgia Whaling Museum, on South Georgia, a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic. Despite its isolated location, 1,400km east of the Falkland Islands, it remains open today and gets around 15,000 visitors a year. Rachel Naylor speaks to Jan Cheek, a friend of the founder and former trustee of the museum.(Photo: South Georgia Museum. Credit: Richard Hall for SGHT)

2 Mars 20239min

Grenada's underwater sculpture park

Grenada's underwater sculpture park

In 2004 Jason deCaires Taylor started building the world's first underwater gallery.He wanted to attract divers away from fragile coral reefs, so he submerged life-sized, human cement models in the Caribbean Sea.Within a few days the art was covered in purple and blue sponges, orange fire coral and green algae... and was even home to a few octopuses.Nineteen years later, Jason tells Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty about his memories of building the park. Archive Credit: Grenada Broadcasting Network.(Photo: ‘Viscissitudes’ - A sculpture installed in Grenada. Credit: Jason deCaires Taylor)

1 Mars 20238min

Pink Triangles: Gay men in Nazi concentration camps

Pink Triangles: Gay men in Nazi concentration camps

In 2009, Rudolf Brazda, one of the last known survivors of the Pink Triangles, returned to the former site of Buchenwald concentration camp where he’d been imprisoned during World War Two, for being gay in Nazi Germany. In never previously broadcast recordings, taped by Jean-Luc Schwab, who wrote Rudolf’s biography, we hear Rudolf’s reaction to returning as a 95-year-old man. Jean-Luc Schwab who became friends with Rudolf in the last few years of his life, speaks to Reena Stanton-Sharma.This programme contains distressing details. (Photo: Rudolf Brazda. Credit: Frederick Florin/ Getty Images)

28 Feb 20238min

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