Today Greece celebrates its longest period of democratic stability in contemporary history. It has been forty years since the fall of the dictatorship and the restoration of democracy; many may not realize what we have achieved, due to the financial crisis and the problems; to enjoy the fruits of democracy, something that was a fleeting dream for past generations.
If we want to evaluate these four decades calmly and without any ideological biases, they were the calmest, most stable and productive years since the foundation of the Hellenic State. Obviously they were not without their problems, as is the case with every democracy. We had our political conflicts, made many mistakes and failed to eliminate financial and social inequalities. Despite the disdain that has prevailed in recent years, the final assessment is positive.
This is because the financial and social crisis of the past few years unfortunately highlighted all of the concentrated pathogens of the post-dictatorship period. The populist-focused political leaderships clearly have a responsibility for not realizing the changes that took place in Greece and the people during this era. This resulted in today’s disdain of politics and the people’s refusal of all forms of collection action. Even worse, the country that gave birth to democracy has allowed a neo-Nazi gang to enter center stage in the political scene.
The Hellenic democracy has desperately needs to update the institutions which it has followed for the past 40 years. Without pressure and interventions from abroad, we ought to carry out all those changes that will allow us not only to leave the crisis behind, but to create the political, social and financial environment that will allow all people, indiscriminately, to be optimistic about the future.
The political system has the responsibility and duty to set aside the sins of the past, the demagoguery, the populist outbursts, the extreme hostility and clientelist attitudes and contribute towards updating institutions and construction a long term national strategy that will serve the common, rather than partisan, good. It is time we left behind the mistakes of the post-dictatorship era and took advantage of the more creative and efficient aspects of democracy for a social and financial progress.
TO VIMA
