An opportunity for the big leap forward
The country has been very close to what I’d always like it to be in this election: so politically predictable, it’s almost dull. Everyone expected the most toxic election in decades. It hasn’t been. Sure, barbs have been exchanged and the rivalries have been fierce, but the country hasn’t sunk into the mud. The fear of division has also been intense. We had already experienced this in that fateful summer of 2015 and knew how easily this nation can go down such a path. But that hasn’t happened either. Yes, the commentary on social media has often been base and divisive, but this attitude has not gone any further. The frenzied act hasn’t held any appeal.
Some people have felt the absence of huge political rallies, the pulse, the passion. They can’t stomach how we went from impassioned speeches belted out from the stage to an adoring crowd, to TikTok and lifestyle morning shows on TV. But when we look at what those heady days of yore really brought us, there’s really not that much to be nostalgic about. We’ve had more than our fill of passion and overly charismatic leaders.
There are, of course, some customs that have stood the test of time, like those that startled foreign visitors in Syntagma Square on the evening of the Greek Communist Party’s (KKE) main rally. They probably felt that they were in a time machine with the view of all those symbols rarely seen outside of antique shops. Then there is the fringe, and a sizable one too, which feeds on conspiracy theories, all sorts of kookiness and hate – a lot of hate. It is, alas, a sign of the times and even in major Western democracies it’s sometimes hard to know whether the fringe is the minority or the majority.
Greece is moving forward and has overcome many of the passions and divisions of the past. Gone are the days when a person voted according to the family into which they were born, as though ideology was imprinted on their DNA. Few people go to the ballot box thinking about who their grandfather voted for. Politicians who are still hung up on these stereotypes are speaking to an empty theater.
Is it enough, though, for the country to be dull and unpredictable? Compared to developments in the broader neighborhood, this should be regarded as quite an achievement. But it’s obviously not enough. The country still needs to reveal and unfold its true potential. No country can take it easy at a time when everything around us is moving at lightning speed. We all – and the next prime minister first and foremost – face a challenge, and that is getting ahead of the Greece we want to leave behind and making a leap forward. History rarely gives us such opportunities. And when you don’t take advantage of them, it holds them back. It’s happened too often in the past to ignore.
