Editorial Ta Nea: Legality

The restoration of the prestige and credibility of institutions is one of the top priorities of the new government.

This issue will determine the future.

The separation of the judicial and the executive powers must be religiously upheld.

The phenomenon of politicians presaging or influencing judicial decisions must not be repeated.

The issue also concerns the past – cases that preoccupied public opinion over the last four years and had an air of scandal or in any way besmirched the reputation or conscience of anyone must be fully probed.

From the Novartis case, which SYRIZA depicted as the greatest scandal since the 1830 establishment of the Greek state and which has collapsed, to the 2015 referendum on the third and last bailout memorandum which nearly pushed Greece out of the eurozone, to the broadcast licenses tender which nearly transformed Greece into Orban’s Hungary, investigations are necessary in order to seek out responsibilities, to illuminate shady points, and to allow the truth to shine.

These probes must be conducted calmly, with faith in the rule of law, and without any type of revanchism.

In short, the government must not use a clean hands operation for a settling of political accounts or for partisan gain.

It must use it to persuade citizens that it is decisive in its intention to establish new mores and a new style of governance.

Many, including former PM Alexis Tsipras, abused the historic phrase of the late left-wing leader Elias Iliou when he was addressing Konstantinos Tsatsos that “we shall upset you with legality”.

The time has come for that phrase to take on political substance.