Greek politicians seek to offer optimism in Easter message

Greek politicians joined religious leaders in seeking to convey a message of hope for better days in their Easter messages over the weekend.

"I hope that the never-failing light of the Resurrection and the symbolism of Easter reveal, to our country and to our sorely tried people, the passage from the period of crisis to that of hope and creativity, and to our European family the passage form today's immobility and bewilderment to the achievement of its ultimate goal, its essential institutional deepening and federal unification with the individual at its center," Pavlopoulos said from Kalamata in the Peloponnese.

Speaking from Corfu on Saturday, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras struck a similar tone, saying "the message of the resurrection should warm the hearts of all of us and give us courage to go on." He also cited Homer, noting that in order to reach Ithaca, one does not only require strength but also thought. "It is enough to believe," he said. "To believe that Ithaca exists and we will soon reach it."

Tsipras's coalition partner Panos Kammenos, who is also Defense Minister, said that Easter should be "a message of hope for all of Greece." In comments on Agathonisi, he gave particular thanks to those guarding Greece's borders "in the Aegean, in Evros, in Macedonia, in Epirus, at every extremity of Greece." 

Speaking from Tinos, opposition New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis, declared that "Greece will see better days, because it can and it deserves to." "Passion Week for Greeks and for Hellenism has lasted for many years," Mitsotakis said, adding that, "the resurrection of a country occurs through our own decisions, through the realization of reality and the hope of truth."

In his Easter message over weekend Archbishop Ieronymos stressed the need for "all of us to make an effort to move forward." "Easter means passage, crossing," he said.