All countries have enlightened political leaders from time to time. The international chessboard is completed by bloodthirsty tyrants, paranoid dictators – all of whom emerge by seizing power or through so-called democratic procedures. The instances of true democracy are rare. In reality we have all experienced periods of democratic life, even though there is no definition that everyone can agree upon.
In Greece things are simple. Regarding the parties, for example, there is the quip of a liberal MP from Samos who delivered a “speech” from Parliament and argued that “true democracy is the dictatorship of our own party”.
The laughter though does not exorcise the threat of power being seized, even in part, by parastatal forces, as it occurred in the infamous elections of 1961, which lead to the apostasy in 1965 and the dictatorship in 1967.
In these dark pages of our contemporary political history there have also been period where virtuous leaders have taken the country forward.
The shared characteristic of all of the important Prime Ministers in postwar Greece is that they all lost power due to political conspiracies. Konstantinos Karamanlis argued that his departure in 1963 was a “conspiracy”, who also spoke of a conspiracy in 1958, two years after becoming Prime Minister. When Karamanlis was asked why left Greece for Paris to live in self exile, he responded that if he did not leave, his MPs would “tear into him”.
Georgios Papandreou claimed that his departure in 1965 was a “political coup”. Andreas Papandreou spoke of political conspiracies within his party in his times. Kostas Mitsotakis claimed that he was overthrown as a result of an conspiracy within his party – and history carries on.
[Kostas Mitsotakis once said, years ago, that “there are no permanent friends and permanent enemies in politics”!]
Today, aside from all the troikas, quartets, reforms, scandal-mongering and everything else, an issue with the Prime Minister is slowly starting to emerge. The seeds of doubt seem unable or rather incapable of sprouting, in a game where everyone is looking out for themselves.
In the last gathering of his party SYRIZA, the Prime Minister is said to have commented that “In the end, the Greek people voted for me”.
So come one, let the man govern!
Stavros P. Psycharis
Originally published in the Saturday print edition
