We live in 2021, not 1944

Some people seem to want to relive December. Not the December of 2008, but of 1944. They are already living it through social media. They accuse university professors who freely express their point of view of being “snitches” and “traitors.” They write comments such as “Die!” under the photo of a man who is fighting for his life. All this is sick. One more click is all it takes for hatred to arm the hand of a paranoid man.

There are plenty of people who want to relive December on the streets of Athens and get their revenge for what happened 77 years ago. Seventy-seven years!

There is absolutely no country in Europe that is going through what we are experiencing. There are countries that went through difficult civil wars and dictatorships, but they buried their demons, honored the dead, shook hands and moved on, many, many years ago.

Greek society solved these issues in the years after the fall of the military dictatorship. The mature Left that had lived through the drama of the civil war understood it and shook hands with the other side. The mature Right did its self-criticism. However, a small minority is stuck in the past and cannot seem to be able to escape. It fantasizes about new “Battles of Athens,” new “Polytechnics” – whatever they can think of. Convicted terrorist Dimitris Koufodinas, as tragic as it might be considering that we are talking about a human life, is simply the vehicle to make their fantasy come true.

But we cannot forget that we are in 2021. There is no German occupation. We do not have a military junta. Greek democracy is solid and has withstood great crises. The Left came to power in 2015 and ruled the country. Nothing bad happened, the country’s institutions endured, life went on, democracy remained intact. This in itself shows that we have matured and do not want to return to the past.

The country must move forward because it has great challenges to face. No one will invest in Greece if Athens starts burning again, every other day. Our opponents rub their hands when they see people deeply divided and a country self-igniting for no particular reason. We have done great harm to ourselves, as a nation, in the past. Countless times.

This time, it is necessary for all of us who have abandoned our historical fantasies on the shelves of our bookcases to show a sense of responsibility and self-restraint.