Campaign rallies and passion

How politics has changed. Today’s campaign rallies look like anaemic imitations of the passionate and huge gatherings that Greece experienced for many decades. One wonders why our political leaders insist on holding them. They don’t gather enough people, they are not lively, and the image does not play very well on television. There are even party officials, lawmakers and politicians who have been around for years who openly admit that they see it as a chore. Then there are also comparisons made by older politicians who have experienced those rallies and from younger ones who have heard them and possibly glamorized them in their minds. I often hear people around me say, “Hey, what do these speeches have to do with those of Andreas [Papandreou]?” Absolutely nothing, is the answer. Politics has lost its charm, it doesn’t captivate the audience, it doesn’t excite it – and it probably doesn’t sell.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; we should not fall for the easy trap of nostalgia. For many years the country suffered from political passions but also from the “syndrome” of great charismatic leaders who knew how to seduce the crowds. Let’s not forget that the last time we experienced passion and a crowd vibrating with slogans was in the summer of 2015. The chants that could be heard kilometers away from Syntagma Square were very reminiscent of well-known, sometimes ill-fated, historical moments. But what followed was a cold shower and a hard snap back to reality. Which also explains why, since then, any Greek love affair with politics has been lost.

Nowadays, it is rare for a politician to resonate with the soul or the emotions of the people. Expectations are more realistic, and suspicion is greater than ever. So what is the problem? The only ones addressing emotions are the merchants of anger and despair. They have easy answers, interpretations and solutions for everything. They make a complex world seem extremely simple, divided into black and white, with demons and victims. They invest in fear and insecurity, rather than hope and expectation. The political antidote to all this can only be tangible results that actually make a difference in people’s lives; and the avoidance of phenomena and attitudes that hurt citizens. The longer it takes to develop the antidote, the more likely it is that someone will emerge who will exploit cynicism and disappointment to rally the masses.