A conference of reflection
It’s one of those times when the final result exceeds expectations. The three-day conference that Kathimerini organized last week, along with the National Bank Cultural Foundation, Delphi Economic Forum, and the Hellenic Observatory at the LSE’s European Institute, on 50 years since the restoration of democracy in Greece, to a large degree ended up being what we all hoped for.
A gathering of some of the most influential people of this period, including numerous former prime ministers, and the most important ministers – of foreign affairs, finance, social security, environment – discussing in depth the numerous crises the country has gone through during the past 50 years, as well as the issues facing it in the future.
The discussions were substantive and can only prove useful to both policy makers as well as the average citizen.
A few crucial conclusions stand out: Greece’s liberal democracy is far from perfect but is strong and standing; many of its shortcomings, like the problematic judicial system and institutional framework, should be overhauled and modernized as soon as possible.
The generally positive assessment of the political cycle is not necessarily the case with respect to the country’s economic performance over the same period as the rate of development is around half the EU average.
There was also a broad agreement on the need for national consensus on major issues, with foreign policy topping the list. Only former PM Antonis Samaras took a different view, noting that asking for consensus looks to him more like preparing for capitulation.
Another healthy development was the fact that, despite the participants’ wide spectrum of ideological backgrounds that naturally resulted in differing prescriptions being tabled, at the end the conference proved a place of ideas and policies converging on many major issues.
Last but not least, for a country where it is very seldom that politicians accept responsibility for their shortcomings and publicly acknowledge mistakes, there were numerous cases where major political figures offered their “mea culpas.”
