Who will the young trust?

The New Democracy government is up against its toughest challenge right before the elections, facing a surging, unpredictable wave of popular rage. But if the main opposition party, SYRIZA, thinks that this translates automatically to gains for itself, then it has not realized that it, too, is at risk from the anger of the many – those who do not usually take to the streets. Because the catastrophe at Tempe has caused grief and a sense of insecurity not only for the lives lost, but also because of all the chronic problems which remain unsolved and which contributed to it. We endured bankruptcy and the loan memorandums, the pandemic and Turkish belligerence, we are having to deal with the war in Ukraine and high prices. We saw some progress in the past few years, and yet we see that we are still condemned. Our weaknesses are so many, and so basic, that the inconceivable happened.

The tragedy at Tempe showed that the Sisyphean curse is not the will of any god, it was not triggered by a distant event or by foreign intervention. It is the bloody distillation of our own errors.

This “collective guilt” does not absolve specific people, agencies and politicians for the chain of weak links which broke. It means, though, that the rage is coming from many directions and its course is unpredictable.

In politics, everyone will be blaming everyone else, at a time when older voters will simply feel new disappointment but young voters – identifying with the young dead at Tempe – feel an immediate, existential threat. This will have a cost for New Democracy. But, despite recent superficial efforts to win over the young, SYRIZA is only claiming to be “better” than the ruling conservatives while its frame of reference remains firmly fixed in a past which is indifferent to the young. For them, the important things are the need for a sense of security and justice, policies to deal with the climate crisis, the possibility for them to study and have a career which provides dignity. These, though, do not spring up out of inertia and opportunism. If the major parties cannot persuade the young that they have learned from the tragedy, their vote will contribute to a new fragmentation of the political scene.

This may lead to new political formations. But it could also lead to the manipulation of politics by outside interests.