A commentary on the Thessaloniki debate.
A dream is a dream: something I the space of unreality. A vision, still in the sphere of unreality, may become an event, a real wish come true. Transforming a dream into reality is by definition an accomplishment. It took the assassination of John Kennedy and 46 whole years, for Martin Luther King’s dream to come true, through the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America, in 2009.
I, an ageing citizen of impoverished Greece, had a dream last night: That, no longer, the Thessaloniki International Fair served as an excuse for the unsavoury, surreal political cock-fighting that it has gradually degenerated into in the post war period. That, instead of the vehement, divisive, partisan speeches delivered on consecutive Saturdays by the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader, viciously attacking each other, on every issue, we had a Government-sponsored national Conference, where the cream of Greek leadership, whether religious, political, entrepreneurial, trade union, academic, professional, people from the world of art, representatives of the Diaspora, would gather to examine constructively the state of our country and express their ideas about the future.
They would review and propose reforms, necessary to make Greece a progressive, happy nation and an important member of the European family. They would try to improve the efficiency and justice of the Government in power, which would take them in good spirit and adjust its course. Finally: a forum that would promote national and social cohesion, not division along superficial party lines. That would be one major step ahead, short of an all-party Coalition government, which is ardently called for by popular vote in the last three elections, with no response. It is remarkable that no party has had a governing majority in the last three elections, while the number of parties that make it to the Parliament has increased from 5 to 8.
Mr. Tsipras, despite his fame as a political tactitian, missed a great opportunity to move to this sensible for the nation solution a year ago, when New Democracy voted for the third Agreement with our creditors and opted for the second national elections, within a year, in which he failed to gain a governing majority. He compromised himself by forming a government with a strange bed-fellow, the extreme right wing party of Independent Greeks.
Tsipras’ Government, in a remarkable display of political inadequacy and hypocrisy, trying to show that they negotiated hard with our creditors, artificially prolonged the evaluation review of the of Greek performance under the third Memorandum, thereby amassing extra losses in gdp, pushing further away the chances for a way out of the crisis. Among other things, political uncertainty necessitated the third recapitalisation of Greek banks and the indefinite extension of capital controls, which hit exporting firms in particular.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the new leader of New Democracy (Centre-Right) persistently calls for fresh elections, claiming (not unreasonably) that the current Government is damaging Greece, every day it survives in power, in the midst of financial scandals, interventions in the work of Justice, internal party conflict on privatisations, or pure incapacity and inaction. He further states that a Coalition Government is impossible, with SYRIZANEL, as long as they attack the Opposition, in inexcusably venomous and rude terms.
So my dream has minute chances to come true, under current political conditions and mentalities. But I shall persist, as the Civil Rights Movement persevered. For, we know for sure from our long history that Greeks accomplished great things, when they were united in pursuing their national objectives. Churchill, amazed at the victory of small Hellas against Mussolini, stated that “We will not say hereafter that the Greeks fight like heroes, but heroes fight like Greeks.” This was the time (1940) that Greeks pushed aside their political divisions and fought in unison.
At that time our national freedom was at stake. This time, the loss of our economic freedom through our own political vices and shortcomings, has dragged our national freedom behind it. What else do we need, in order to come to our senses, unite and really face this double challenge, in the inimitable Greek spirit?