The political divs in the cabinet reshuffle may have dominated the news, but there are other major problems of greater concern for the country.
Beyond the economy and scandals, an alarming wave of violence has beset the capital and a number of other cities. Due to the hunger strike of a prisoner, organised, dangerous groups are lashing out.
This is no longer only about the usual, almost daily attacks in the broader Athens neighbourhood of Exarheia, a hotbed of anarchist and anti-authority groups. When several dozen, self-proclaimed anti-authority individuals wreak havoc in the most central commercial street of Athens, and the police do not intervene, something is very wrong.
We have also seen a grenade attack outside a police precinct that police apparently did not hear, a destruction of offices of political parties, forays into hospitals, and threats that they are preparing for a replay of the riots of December, 2008, (which were triggered by a policeman shooting dead a boy), all this constitutes a setting of unchecked aggressiveness and violence.
Then we have the by now customary lawlessness at university campuses, with no one offering any substantial response. People barge into professors’ offices, occupy rectors’ offices, and break up meetings of university assemblies, in an almost daily routine that destroys university life and establishes a reign of terror.
Nobody dares any longer to organise a conference or an academic discussion, as everyone is afraid of being confronted by ruthless club-wielding hooligans.
Tolerance of violence is diachronic phenomenon in Greek society, which, however, is spinning out of control. The government and police look on as mere observers. They are either unable to intervene, or they do not dare to do so. The competent minister blames the police, which in turn shifts responsibility to the ministers, charging that they do not issue adequate orders.
It is beyond reason that the capital, which is supposed to be the mirror of the country, is falling prey to a few hundred enraged individuals, who think they are staging a revolution by destroying and terrorising.
We are the only country in the civilised world that displays such tolerance for violence, and at the same time such incompetence or inability in addressing it.
The government, and the prime minister himself, bear an enormous responsibility for all this. They cannot ignore or downgrade the problem, and constantly kick the can down the road.
As long as they remain indifferent, lawlessness will spread, and the wave of those seeking an easy uprising without being called to account will grow.
While there is still time, let them understand, at long last, that they cannot play along with this explosive wave of daily violence and terrorism.
This cannot be tolerated, either by the citizens who experience it or by the country, which has paid dearly for comparable phenomena in the recent past.
