Editorial To Vima: Look who is talking about fake news

The debate in parliament yesterday confirmed yet again that SYRIZA and its junior coalition partner, the Independent Greeks, are carrying on with the same populist and divisive tactics and with the same arrogance of power.

Mr. Tsipras, obviously annoyed with revelations about the work and days of his close associates, targeted (as is his wont) all those who do not sing the praises of his government.

The problem is that Mr. Tsipras has not been the prime minister only over the last hundred days, after the completion of the bailout programme, as he would have us believe.

Any handouts he may distribute, with the money the state has collected from over-taxation, do not cancel out the previous deeds of his government. Similarly, citizens remember the unfeasible pledges and the false hopes that he cultivated.

It is at least odd for Mr. Tsipras to be talking about fake news. He is a politician who had no compunction about constantly deceiving the Greek people, who operated like a snake oil salesman, and who derided European politicians, only to play the role of their great friend and of the reformer of Europe afterwards.

The targeting of the media was and is the foundation of the PM’s political career. Like many other populist leaders, it was and is his fervent desire to control and subjugate the press.

He constantly targets whoever does not submit to his designs, whoever insists on trying to inform citizens without partisan or other blinders, and whoever does not take orders from the PM’s press office.

Mr. Tsipras has quite a few partisan mouthpieces, but he appears not to be satisfied with that. He and his coalition partner seek to subjugate everyone, and in that effort they slander, use the judiciary as an instrument, and convict people before trial, as long as they achieve their aim.

It is high time that he understands, as others have in the past, that power comes and goes, but media outlets that fulfil their mission are and here and will be in the future as well.

They are here not here to seek favours and act as the sycophants of power, but to serve the needs of democracy, to inform citizens as best they  can in the face of many adversities, and to exercise the necessary checks on all forms of power.