Nothing routine about politics anymore
No one should take society for granted: That is the message sent from the ballot box on Sunday, as in other elections. This is an age of frustration, when citizens don’t want to feel like fish on a hook, when they have demands, and nothing angers them more than arrogance. But there is something else too: communication may be the end-all, but excessive communication can act as a boomerang that ultimately favors the least “communication-friendly” candidates.
No one can say that politics hasn’t become interesting, however. The routine has been broken for around a decade now. Elections are no longer a duel between New Democracy and PASOK, nor is it a given that a political leader is there for the long haul. Quite the opposite: Politicians have become more and more dispensable and so-called “meteors” – people no one expects suddenly dropping in – have become a much more frequent phenomenon. Whether they have stickability and an impact can only be seen by their trajectory.
This is also a time when partisan pride no longer sells either. It is not tolerated and it is punished. Whether Greece is painted blue, red or green – just saying – is of no concern to citizens. Only party cadres and their microcosm care. Its representatives do not understand this because they have scaled the party ladder. Some politicians are addicted to bickering on air and do not realize how their voices alienate the part of society that votes every time without remembering what it voted for the previous time and without caring what its grandfather voted for. Society is changing, along with politics.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis issued a clear signal last night: That he received a message from the runoff vote. Perhaps the most basic is the mistake made by many government officials to over-celebrate his political hegemony. The first months of the second Mitsotakis term left wounds that did not tolerate such celebrations, and certainly no citizen was in the mood to offer a “blank check” to anyone forever.
However, the prime minister has all the time and political opportunity to translate Sunday’s message into tangible actions.
Last night also showed that the mentality of “attack dogs” does not help the opposition. It used to attract votes once but now people want milder, moderate people in politics.
Finally, last night had a special moment in the way that the outgoing mayor of Athens, Kostas Bakoyannis, accepted defeat. That, too, was no routine act either.
