Elections in Greece have been called for May 6 2012 and everyone is intently looking at what the polls are indicating until the day of voting.
The eKathimerini article from Wednesday last week (11 April 2012) shows that support overall for the “right” is still the most popular choice for Greeks. The New Democracy party has lost its close to 30% support it had gained during the “mnimonio” debate days and it has had to share its support to the newly created party by their ex member Panos Kammenos.
Panos Kammenos has created a new political party of “independents” that have left predominantly from the New Democracy party, or had been delisted from the party for not conforming to the party line of supporting the “mnimonio”. The irony of course is that many of these delisted members have been welcomed back by the party now that the election campaigns have commenced.
PASOK is in complete disarray despite the leadership change to Evangelos Venizelos. According to all the polls it has no chance of winning the elections.
In fact the polls indicate that neither of the traditional parties, New Democracy or PASOK, have any chance of winning. Their combined support fails to exceed 35% of the total vote. Of course at the time of voting, it is likely that even those disenchanted supporters may get a sudden rush of loyalty and vote as they have traditionally for one of these parties.
Personally this possible feeling of loyalty can only be seen as an act of irresponsibility.
The state of the Greek economy cannot be explained by one reason or by simply putting it down to bad management of previous governments. Politicians and citizens alike have had played some part in the whole tragedy. However it unavoidably links back to the political system and traits developed over the years in the system of governance.
Bureaucracy and the lack of controls from the governments have allowed corruption and social behaviour. That some people were able to use this to their benefit still comes back to governance or rather lack of it.
Sure there have been supposedly blind people taking pensions, dead people still being paid pensions, tax avoidance, false income declarations and the list goes on. These can only exist in a system that has a lack of controls and mechanisms to discourage and even prosecute these activities.
The post junta era of democracy in Greece has been dominated by these two parties and has been dominated by two families, namely Karamanlis for New Democracy and Papandreou for PASOK. Mismanagement and accusations of corruption have riddled both parties throughout this era and the result is this crisis that has almost crippled the nation.
How can it be seen as anything but irresponsible to still have any loyalty to these two parties?
Panos Kammenos’ Independent Greeks and Fotis Kouvelis’ Democratic Left would have to be the only legitimate changes that Greeks should be considering. Despite still having politicians that have served the previous traditional parties, they offer new leadership options and directions.
Greeks need to believe and to work in administering new governance controls and mechanisms if it wants to create a new era of democracy that serves its best interests.
One thing is certain that there will be much debate during this election campaign.
fotis@evdomada.net
