Editorial To Vima: The dilemma of the elections

This year European Parliament and local elections are neither simple nor commonplace.

Their crucial nature is patently obvious. They are considered and indeed are a dress rehearsal for the upcoming parliamentary election, which has not yet been called.

After ten years of economic crisis Greece is at a critical crossroads, and citizens must choose the country’s path. They must decide whether it will remain in a cycle of introversion and misery or whether it will attempt to make progress and bring dynamic economic growth.

Voters must decide if they will settle for petty, piecemeal responses to problems and arrangements or whether they will spread their wings and seize the opportunity that lies before them.

Essentially, one is dealing with two separate schools of political thought and practice.

Over the past years the government has adopted a dual or two-pronged approach.

At first it attacked Greece’s partners and creditors due to the self-confessed self deception and illusions of the PM.
It did not recognise either the bankruptcy that had come and its awful repercussions or the burden it had to shoulder as the responsible government.

Consequently, it reached a total impasse which led to a one-sided and entirely problematic compromise.
Without any negotiation it capitulated and accepted the difficult aim of stabilisation which it then served like latter day Janissaries, imposing upon Greek society many more restrictive measures than necessity and circumstances required.

According to one account the government opted for harsh austerity and over-taxation so as to ensure that it would meet the demands of partners and creditors and create a reserve of pre-electoral funding that it would give citizens at the end of its term in order lure voters.

It served to the maximum the stabilisation plan imposed by foreigners, an absolutely monetaristic plan that it never believed in.

That is why now at the first opportunity it is sacrificing that plan, which was imposed by partners and is not limited to stabilisation.

The government predicted leaps of reform, a strong opening to the markets, and the transfer of funds to investments so as to change the economic climate and build strong foundations for a more permanent kind of growth which could truly change people’s lives for the better.

Instead, the government and the PM opted for the usual base trade in votes by distributing paltry benefits.

Unfortunately, they learned nothing from the crisis and are ready without measure or compunction poised to annul the sacrifices of the Greek people over many years for a few votes.

The prospect of the country backpedaling into a new crisis which would plunge us into a spate of new restrictive measures exists, as European authorities warn.

There is a great danger of returning to the misery of the great crisis and it has been discussed.

That is why the dilemma of the European Parliament election is great and absolutely decisive as regards the course of the country.

Everyone knows what follows and everyone will bear responsibility if a cycle of opportunity is disregarded and the country returns to a cycle of self-destruction.