A rare window of opportunity

Escapist tendencies are perfectly understandable in anyone who is involved in public life in Greece, and especially if they are in a post that entails serious responsibilities. To put it bluntly, this is not an easy country. The state is riddled with people like the stationmaster in Larissa involved in the Tempe crash and the Fire Service officials on duty during the deadly Mati wildfire. The issue is not only about the individuals, so much as the fact that they are rotten beams in a structure that’s always on the verge of collapse. Beams constructed by politicians from across the political spectrum, either to accommodate cronies or to control the distribution of power.

It all makes for an intolerably toxic atmosphere. In the meantime, protest rallies are swelling again and city streets are too often clogged with marches. Fewer and fewer people agree to enter into politics or assume responsible roles in public administration. The always demanding part of the private sector keeps going back to zero and making new claims. Pre-election proclamations end up being impossible to implement despite being essentially straightforward.

So it is logical that those who need to govern have escapist tendencies. Whether it is former premiers Costas Simitis, Kostas Karamanlis, Antonis Samaras or Alexis Tsipras, or even incumbent Kyriakos Mitsotakis, you notice with the passage of time the fatigue that accumulates, the tendency to turn the office into a bunker through which the rulers see enemies everywhere and talk only with people who agree with them.

After emerging from the crisis, Greece is experiencing a rare spell of stability and growth, and this at a time when other “civilized” countries are mired in chaos. Yet there is something that is preventing us from believing that this can be more than a spell; that it can be sustainable. I hear all sorts of people saying: “Okay, we’ll have a couple more years of growth and then it will be back to the same.” This is the perfect way to realizing a self-perpetuating disaster prophecy. It is also the perfect way to rationalize one last power grab.

I live here too, and I see the problems. The majority of our fellow citizens are struggling to make ends meet; many public hospitals are in shambles; the public administration and justice remain unreformed; as do the rules of transparency. We obviously need more major foreign investments, in areas apart from real estate and data centers. We need someone to address the issue of overtourism. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. That said, significant progress has been made in a number of areas. Greece has a window of opportunity that will close at some point, either because of international factors or because the country will enter a period of political uncertainty and discord. Public debt and the demographic crisis are like ticking bombs we would rather forget existed.

I won’t prescribe positive thinking, like some TV psychologist. But it would be good to remember how rare such a window of opportunity is and to put all of our good efforts – yes, even the opposition, if the government’s stance allows it – into achieving four or five essential steps that will put the country even more firmly on this auspicious path. In the meantime, the powers that be need to start changing those rotten beams, one by one, and hope that they don’t cause more accidents and tragedies in the meantime.