Law and order

Any state with a mere modicum of self-respect has to make sure that law and order are maintained across national territory.

When authorities decide to turn a blind eye and make an exception here or there, they only end up giving the impression that anything goes. This attitude can have risky consequences.

Greece has always been a peculiar state. It never really managed to escape its past.

The current government is treading on a fine line between the ideological fixations of that 4 percent of diehard grassroots supporters and reality.

Its failures have become blatantly evident in its handling of the burgeoning migration crisis and particularly the recent developments at the makeshift camps at Idomeni, Chios and the port of Piraeus.

Greece’s leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras finally has to realize that he has taken an oath to respect the laws of the state rather than giving in to the obsessions of his SYRIZA party.