Alas the lazy voters
It is so unbelievably frustrating to see fellow-citizens so breezily giving up their right to vote so they can have a day on the beach. Let’s say that we can forgive youngsters who refuse to take anything seriously and don’t think their vote is that important in any case. But I cannot find any excuse for those voters who treat voting like something they only do when they can be bothered. They abstained in the parliamentary elections of 2019, as they did in many other instances before that. They have no excuse for the upcoming European Parliament elections, because the postal vote gave them the option to cast their ballot and still get a day at the beach or even to go to an island for the weekend. Yet I still hear them sneering: “As if… I’m not giving up my weekend for anyone or anything.”
What they would vote for is irrelevant. That said, these tend not to be people who are so disillusioned with life they feel nothing will change no matter who they vote for. In other words, their decision not to vote is not driven by anti-systemic sentiment. It is driven by profound cynicism, indifference and the belief that someone else will step into the breach. The paradox is that many of these abstainers enjoy the fruits of the prosperity that political stability has brought us in the past few years. Nevertheless, they feel that the country owes them and they owe nothing to the country; it is an attitude that is also apparent in the way may of them conduct business.
So, as usual, it will be the conscientious Greeks who will turn up to vote, who will deprive themselves of a day at the beach and wait in line in the heat to do what needs to be done. They too could rationalize abstention by saying that the choice of candidates some of the parties have given them are lamentable. Yet they don’t; they keep looking for someone who will be worth their support. They don’t turn the choice of the people who will represent us or govern us into a game. These are the voters who have saved us from unnecessary drama in the past and who proved their grit when they were dragged through the mud after the dramatic referendum of 2015.
Let us hope that a lackadaisical attitude will not define the outcome of Sunday’s election. What we can do in the meantime is remind these lazy voters that being a part of this country comes with a few basic duties.
