When in the midst of international crises and conflicts like the one in the Middle East, the debate in Greece is about how to distribute the surplus fairly rather than how to take emergency cuts or tax increases, something good has probably been done in recent years.
Some may have forgotten about the memoranda and the more than a decade-long financial crisis, but in the context of global rearrangements and geopolitical developments, it’s not a bad thing to consider where we would be -with the constant crises in our heads – if those who wanted to close the banks were in power and not… prevented it – as some historian and serious leader of the left would say – or those who used to shout the familiar “give it all away” and… we’ll see.
That is, those who every time called for forward measures without caring or ignoring the follow-up, while promising the sky with stars during the election campaign, as they are doing today on the road to the 2027 elections, setting up an informal bidding contest to see who will give out the most money of what they don’t have.
The fact that at the end of the year Greece, according to IMF forecasts, will not be the country with the highest debt in Europe as a percentage of GDP – something the prime minister stressed yesterday in his introductory speech to the Council of Ministers – is not insignificant. Some may ask “and what does this mean for my pocket?”, but the truth is that it means a lot, and especially for future generations.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis stressed to the Council of Ministers that “the fact that this government can simultaneously achieve high growth rates, a surplus that is returned to citizens, reduce unemployment, attract investment and decelerate debt,so that growth is fed organically and not by borrowing, is a great success of our economic policy”. This can hardly be written off despite the catastrophism that the opposition as a whole has chosen as a tactic.
Not even with promises, “money trees” and euros falling from… helicopters. Promises and fine words or pats on the back are good, easy on the other hand are the attacks and rhetoric that invoke toxicity. Only at the end of the day, all those who claim the citizen’s vote, in addition to the complaints and robes, will have to present a program that includes a costed program of what they tweet and, more importantly, how they will be put into practice. The economy remains central and is the basis for the defence and diplomatic armouring of the country, of any country. Without stability in the economy and society, without a plan for the next day, what has been achieved will be hard to maintain and easy to lose.
Populism remains the easy solution for those who do not want to enter into the logic of comparison. That is why new Robespierre’s are born every time. And that is why every time the easy way is chosen through the deconstruction of institutions.
* This article was published in the print edition of the Manifesto
