It’s not just PASOK who… has no idea about the client state and is hearing about buffets and payrolls for the first time.

It’s also SYRIZA, who at every opportunity -and first of all Mr Tsipras, who is preparing his return to the political scene with a lot of suspense- pretends that he ruled by fighting for… meritocracy.

On February 8, 2015, during his speech on the programmatic statements, Mr. Tsipras thundered: “We are not the ones who built and did not run this state of clientelism and waste and that is why – I am not bragging – we are the only ones who can really change it.”

“We did not create this state, which is unreliable, clientelistic, bureaucratic, inefficient,” he repeated on March 14, 2023, in his interview with Mega and Yannis Pretenderis and Rania Tzima.

Of course, their deeds and their days contradict them. Because when the first Left was in power, it exploited with great provocativeness the last sprinkle of the client state.

The incidents are many and they all have a name. However, I will quote them without mentioning the individuals. Those concerned know. And they would do well to remind the carnivores of their party who gloat, rummage through biographies and pretend to be blood innocents.

Hospitals on a sharing basis!

In the hospital administrations, SYRIZA and ANEL shared the positions: Where a governor was appointed by SYRIZA, a deputy governor was appointed by ANEL! And vice versa.

In fact, in order to accomplish their task, the two government partners proceeded with the summary dismissal – overnight – of sixty governors and deputy governors. With the hospitals left without a head until the ‘evaluation interviews’, which lasted no more than five to seven minutes!

In the end it was revealed that at least one in three came from the party organs and secretariats of both parties (SYRIZA and ANEL), 30% had a master’s degree from the Open University – while their professor was a member of the selection committee; others were failed MPs or personal friends of local MPs; and others were candidates on the ballots for the national, local government or trade union elections of the two governing parties.

In one case, PODIN reported that a governor of a major hospital had four fake degrees, remaining in his position for over two years!

In another case, the same person was found to be running two hospitals at the same time, 16 km apart!

Most of them had nothing to do with health, but they had “parchments”: they were members of the secretariats of SYRIZA. Others held their first meeting with hospital workers at… party offices. Another had distinguished himself for his posts in favour of a return to the drachma. Another was a personal friend of Tsipras’ partner or his ministers, as reported by local media at the time. Others were trade unionists, elected on SYRIZA’s ballots. And another was a former PASOK member who switched to SYRIZA.

The same happened in the high-ranking positions of presidents and general secretaries, administrators and deputy administrators of organizations and public enterprises, as well as in those of presidents of the Ministry of Regional Development: all of them were politicians in national elections or candidates on SYRIZA and ANEL ballots in local elections.

Other relatives…

And because this collective hypocrisy is very disturbing, there are also the following, which I also quote without names – as you know I despise slander and name-calling – but it would be good for those described to tell their party, i.e. the incorruptible, immaculate and untainted SYRIZA, to tone it down. We have and we say:

-Directors of ministerial and parliamentary offices were placed in select positions in the state apparatus and in positions as heads of large public educational structures.

-Brothers, nephews and other relatives found themselves general secretaries and advisers in ministries.

-Spouses and companions of ministers and local government officials were placed in presidential positions of large PPPs and in general secretariats of ministries.

-Spouses, companions, daughters, nieces and nephews of ministers and officials were hired in other ministerial offices, while positions were also found for… suitors of ministerial daughters!

-In one case, the husband was appointed secretary general in a ministry and the wife was appointed special assistant to the minister!

-In another case, a minister’s companion was found to be running a large public organization.

-In one case, the wife of an MP was appointed to the position of CEO of a non-existent organization!

-There have been secondments, party purges in various organisations, party selections of Regional Directors of Education (without their CVs even being made public), changes in the way school principals and directors of education are selected – and twice to make sure that ‘day-timers’ are appointed.

-Scientific associate of the SYRIZA CO and member of the Programme and Studies and Documentation Committees was appointed General Secretary for Coordination of the Government.

-Member of the Transport Committee and responsible for the Thematic Sector of Combined Transport of SYRIZA, he was appointed chairman and CEO of a large organization.

-Scientific associate of an MP was appointed to a position of responsibility in a major organization supervised by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources.

Doubled positions of responsibility

With an amendment and in the midst of memoranda and “heroic battles”, the positions of responsibility in OASA, OSI, STASY were doubled in order to serve as many “day laborers” as possible. And in order to accommodate even more people, the institution of the deputy secretary general was created in the ministries.

In the same vein, within just two years, from February 2016 to August 2018, four fire chiefs were appointed – so that no one would be left complaining.

The director of the National Theatre was removed and the terms of all the boards of directors of the organisations overseen by the Culture Ministry, including the Greek Festival, were ended prematurely.

Photographic notices

In two ministries, persons whose biographies were “photographed”… copy paste in the respective notices were selected for the positions of general secretaries.

Example: The notice mentioned experience in the management of organisations in the fields of environmental management and/or environmental quality control. And the official CV mentioned exactly… “experience in the management of organisations in the fields of environmental management and environmental quality control”!

In September 2016, the selection of the persons who would staff the five-member Supervisory Board of the Supervision Fund had caused a big issue, but also the intervention of Brussels. The lenders discovered that the proposed persons had close party or family ties with the Syriza party.

In OAED, NAT, EAS, OGA, IKA, EYDAP, ERGOSE, PPA, OAEE, EAB, OASA, OSI, STASY, EGNATIA SA, DEPEENE, OSE, ATTIKO METRO, SYRIZA and ANEL politicians were nominated, members of the Central Committee of SYRIZA and the National Council of ANEL, candidates for European Parliament, mayors and municipal and regional councillors, trade unionists, associates of ministers.
Of the six members of the PPC board appointed by the state, four were former trade unionists, and all were either executives or affiliated to SYRIZA.

Special care was given to those belonging to the so-called “socialist tendency” of SYRIZA – and where they were drawing pensions, they found themselves controlling the railways! The same happened with SYRIZA MPs coming from PASOK who switched there from PASOK or other executives coming from DIMAR, rewarded for their… flexibility.

So, to finish: When they there in SYRIZA talk about buffets and denounce the client state of “others”, however forgetful they may be, let them remember that we are not Lotus eaters…