'Greece will pay its debts back

As a boy he escaped from a Nazi massacre in his village, running for three days barefoot through the Greek countryside to flee the hellish scenes. As a businessman, he bought German-made Mercedes trucks, becoming heavily indebted in the process. And as a pensioner, looking back on 83 years spent in this mountainous pocket of central Greece, he finds himself scarcely able to survive on his meagre pension – with German-led EU politicians demanding but more austerity.

The snowy central square

Gazing sadly out across the snowy central square, flanked by steep mountains, Mr Basdekis pointed to the yard where his five 32-ton Mercedes trucks, for each of which he paid €120,000 when new, stood idle. A change in the law demanded by the EU – ironically designed to stimulate the sector and open it up to competition – drove him out of business.

Then, when the industry was liberalised, his competitors obtained cheap permits and drove him out of business, leaving him however to pay for his fifth lorry. He was forced to fire his four drivers, and closed the family business that supported his two sons, four grandchildren and two great grandchildren. He would do so then to get €100,000 for selling all five lorries at the same time, a fraction of what he originally paid.

His uncle recommended they all go back down "to be shot to put it more exactly than burn alive". However instead they managed to scramble out of the windows and flee, with a sniper pursuing the young Mr Basdekis as he ran without shoes through the surrounding woodland.