The police were conspicuously absent during the attack on Hardalias’s home.

refugee camps 1. hotbeds of crime and lawlessness “It pains me to see Greece not filled with refugee camps” 2. evidence of state failure “The ease with which various groups of lawbreakers operate is enough, and I don’t think we need more refugee camps.” 3. Decay and decline: “I fear that society’s ‘refugee camps’ can no longer be swept under the rug.”

A city block overrun by criminals

The sight of the “refugee camps” on Alexandras Avenue is a visual representation of the state’s defeat. Just a few meters from the headquarters of ELAS (Michalis’, not Tzokontou’s) and a little further from the Supreme Court, an entire city block has been left to the whims of squatters and other lawbreakers, with the police merely standing by. “‘At least they’re watching,’ one might say, given that the march organized by supporters of lawlessness through the center of Agia Paraskevi culminated in an attack on the home of Regional Governor Chardalias and the vandalism of all the buildings in the neighborhood, the police were conspicuously absent. I don’t know what the government is thinking, but the image of a society in which all kinds of vulnerable people (whether socially or ideologically) act with impunity is not particularly flattering. And the problem with unflattering images is that they usually cost votes.

No identification

I watched the video of the deputy mayor of Athens in which Chrysostomos Doukas anxiously tries to identify with the (almost certain) new leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Ant Burnham, and I must admit I didn’t understand what this comparison was based on. Was Burnam really such a bad mayor?

He doesn’t need to fight for a spot in the top five

The news is positive for PASOK in the new Interview poll. The party of Androulakis and Doukas seems to be securing third place and, as things stand, won’t have to fight for a spot in the top five.

We, the… wealthy

“This is the first time I’ve seen such anxiety on the panels regarding the taxation of wealth,” said the spokesperson for Tzokondou, Koufonikolakou, perhaps because she doesn’t seem to remember that the last time her leader “took on” our “wealth,” he made us foot the bill.