To paraphrase the English expression “elephant in the room”, opposition parties during parliamentary debate yesterday were seeking the elephant in parliament.

According to SYRIZA, the decision of the vice-speaker of Parliament to cut off an opposition MP’s speech and shut the microphone of the podium was an “unprecedented, undemocratic, and coup-style muzzling of an MP”.

For its part, the centre-left KINAL/PASOK party, said incident is the result of each of the two largest parties’ habit of not allowing other parties to speak.

The search for the elephant in Parliament is in vain, as it is huge and patently obvious. The government points at it, but the opposition pretends not to see it or attempts to disguise it.

The elephant is “Polakism” [named after SYRIZA’s brash former alternate health minister Pavlos Polakis] and it appears in various forms – disobeying rules, scorning institutions, a lack of moderation, audacity, vindictiveness, and authoritarianism. It is characterised by dangerous toxicity and alarming transmissibility.

As long as the main opposition party cannot rid itself of this elephant, it can persuade no one that it has learned the lessons of the past.

As long as the third largest party (KINAL-PASOK) refuses to acknowledge and condemn this phenomenon – insisting on keeping equal distances and blasting the bipolar political system for all of the country’s problems, it will be unable to persuade voters that it deserves to finish second, if not first, in the next general election.

Democracy cannot tolerate political arsonists and their games.

Abiding by the rules and the law is more critical than ever.

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