‘I expect the new government to…’

Citizens from different walks of life describe their desires, needs, hopes and fears for the day after the election.

Evi Harila

Student at the National Technical University of Athens, and an honor roll student in the 2022 national university entrance exams

I expect change, a sincere effort that will aim not just at achieving progress, but also at dealing with existing problems. I want a Greece that will give all its young people more opportunities and equal opportunities, and that will be interested in benefiting everyone rather than a few.

Alexander Nehamas

Professor of humanities, philosophy and comparative literature at Princeton University

I don’t expect. I hope. I hope that we will, finally, take a serious approach to addressing the matter of education across its breadth – from kindergarten to university – and in every respect, from the procedural to the essential.

I hope that we will fix the flaws of the last piece of legislation on educational reform, such as, for example, the nature and composition of institutions’ boards, that we will implement the law on performance evaluations for educators and, more generally, that we will admit that our educational system is in need of a radical overhaul.

More specifically, I hope that we will effectively deal with secondary education’s inability to prepare students for university entrance exams, forcing them to cover the shortcomings of the system with a second kind of school, at an enormous economic, social and personal cost. I hope.

Glykeria Vlachogianni

Coordinating director of intensive care at Agios Dimitrios General Hospital

I expect the increase in the number of ICU beds to be followed by their proper staffing. While there are intensive care units that were fully equipped, the shortage of staff means that all the beds cannot be utilized. I understand that it takes seven years of additional work after getting a medical degree to specialize in emergency medicine, so it is hard for someone to invest that much time for the salaries that are paid. I expect more incentives and changes in pay.

Incentives also need to be offered for nursing staff because there are shortages there too, even though plenty of positions have been advertised. You can’t offer a salary of just 900-1,000 euros to someone who works so hard, who is at the patients’ side during the worst time of their lives.

Yiannis Boutaris

Former Thessaloniki mayor

Because I’ve had the fortune or misfortune of serving in local government, I expect meaningful reforms to the way that municipal authorities function. When a school doesn’t have central heating, it’s the mayor that people call, not the minister. It’s the mayor that hears the citizens’ complaints; they don’t care about central government. Several governments have promised that property taxes would be paid to the municipal authorities. When? Municipal authorities are castrated; and I mean it entirely.

I expect meaningful reforms more generally, too. The justice system is the first area that needs to be reformed; the right to postpone a trial again and again and again is the biggest problem. Then there are the reforms that need to be implemented in education. What’s more, procedures need to be simplified, more generally.

Vanna Marketaki

Director of the Eliza Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children

I expect and ask of those who have been given the power to govern this country that they do so wisely, without being swayed by the sirens; that they work tirelessly, in a spirit of cooperation and with a sense of duty toward their fellow citizens; that they are driven by a vision to contribute to the creation of a welfare state, the bedrock of a civilized state. I expect the views and opinions of those who with humility and dedication have spent years in the field of child protection to be heard, so that a framework can be created that will prevent children from being abused, victimized or exploited by others for their personal gain or power.

I expect that we will stop relying for good things on the private battles fought by people on their own, with whatever means they have at their disposal, and finally acquire an organized system in which we can feel that everyone is doing the work that is expected of them and in which even the most indifferent will be compelled to do their duty.

Stathis Potamitis

Lawyer

I expect the process of adjudication to be simplified and speeded up in the justice system. I also expect economic growth to take into account the protection of the environment (natural, human and social) more. I also expect a culture of cooperation and consultation, with respect for one another’s views and without bias, especially between parties that are at odds.

Rena Kalogirou

Cashier at an Athens supermarket

I expect more for my children, for the new generation, though I am not at all sure that this will happen. These are kids who are educated, who are not getting paid what they would expect with their studies, and who have to hold down two or even three jobs. I really hope that something is done for the next generations; this is all I really expect.

Sotiris Sorogas

Visual artist

What I hope tomorrow brings is a hope for this country, a hope for that essential path toward a more mature sense of social responsibility, forging an individual and collective morality that will help us deal with the big changes that lie ahead. What scares me most is this sense of widespread populism and the image of a political world that allows people who peddle letters from Jesus or nationalist nihilists who viciously and blatantly undermine the sanctity of our nation to climb up its ranks.

Lora Pappa

President of the nongovernmental organization METAdrasi

I expect meaningful measures for the assimilation of refugees into Greek society, which is suffering from the consequences of a low birthrate and workforce shortages. I expect the rhetoric toward civil society organizations to change, for their contribution to be acknowledged and for an understanding that a healthy civil society is one of the key pillars of an open, democratic society.

Poka-Yio

Visual artist, curator, director of the Athens Biennale, associate professor at the Athens School of Fine Arts

I expect the new government to start planning a long-term strategy for contemporary culture. I expect the state to acknowledge that Athens is a global cultural capital and that the Athens Biennale is the biggest periodical international event on Athens’ contemporary culture and by doing so to take an active role in its organization, as the state does in all other biennales across the world.

Christos Loulis

Actor

I expect legislation to reinforce the health system, to modernize education in terms of revolutionary 21st century practices, security cameras on the streets, usable pavements across Greece’s towns and cities, wheelchair accessibility everywhere, fewer cars on the road, the implementation of laws regulating the facades of buildings, the reforestation of the areas damaged by wildfires, more professionalism in the public sector, the end of impunity, children reading books, more children, the end of flimsy solutions, an end to tax evasion, a national vision for culture, the creation of a roadmap for a higher education school for performing arts, money for research, more productive investments, double the teachers and doctors with double salaries, simplifying justice and mainly social peace.

I expect a unanimous feeling of shared destiny. A common expectation of our government, those around us, and us ourselves, with more respect to humanity and the uniqueness of Greek nature. I expect a lot!

Eno Agolli

Poet and PhD candidate at Rutgers University

I definitely expect that the steady upward course of the economy will continue, and I also expect more progress in the rights of the LGBTQ+ community. Ideally, I would also like to see the government making a sincere effort to assimilate the waves of migrants into Greek society, of all these new people coming in across our borders, people who are a demographic treasure. And more specifically, for all of us who emigrated during the big brain drain, I would like the next four years to contribute to Greece becoming a pole of repatriation.

Angelos Chaniotis

Member of the National Council for Research, Technology and Innovation

As early as Monday I expect that instances of arbitrariness, the solidification of political clientelism and monologues that appear when a single-party majority government is re-elected, will not be repeated. I belong to the minority which believes that sustainable reforms take place in collaboration governments, with consent and dialogue. As a historian I expect of the future that we are taught by the experiences by the past. Because it is better to have understandable worries eased than great expectations dashed, I am reserved about the day after.

Vangelis Avgoulas

Lawyer, member of the board at the Athens Bar Association and president of the nonprofit organization Me Alla Matia

I expect the state and society to trust the abilities and capabilities of disabled individuals as professionals, scientists, co-shapers and co-creators of everyday life, because we are subject to rights and obligations and not pity. I expect the creation of accessible cultural corners across Greece, so that disabled creators and artists can finally present their work and talent as equals.

As for special education, I hope that the school bell will ring at the same time and day for disabled and non-disabled children, with permanent support and education staff for all disabled students in Greece.

I expect to see around me more people with disabilities that will leave their homes and institutions, thanks to the personal support they will be given, integrated from now on in the daily life of Greece. Finally, I expect familiarity with disability to become an organized lesson in our country’s schools and that we invest in the empathy of our children, forming tomorrow’s active citizens for a society that works for all and not just the few!

Leonidas Kastanas

Middle school physics teacher

I expect reforms of substance in education. Some things have already been accomplished, but these things have been integrated by the “deep school” and already been brought to its own measure. It already took care of self-evaluations, in the same way that the evaluation of teaching staff risks being done for, to be a routine process. The second thing I expect concerns Greece’s universities. They must, in essence, have an international outlook, to not allow students to move ahead to the next year of study if they have not completed all required subjects. If someone cannot successfully pass all his lessons, they should move to a different school. These are the two things I expect.

Yiorgis Yerolymbos

Photographer, architect

The first four years of the premiership of Kyriakos Mitsotakis were accompanied by unprecedented events that defined, in large part, the government’s political agenda. Financial crisis, pandemic, war in Europe, tense relationships with our neighbors. All these required the immediate response of the prime minister, relegating other important reforms that the country has desperately needed for decades.

As a citizen of this country, I expect as early as the morning after the election that every avenue will be pursued to combat the deficiencies that have plagued our country since the restoration of democracy in 1974. I expect better public education, with teachers that are evaluated, a National Health System that will be reminiscent of its British counterpart, a rooting out of corruption no matter who is involved, the dispensation of justice at times that are similar to those of other European countries, a complete digitalization of the relationship between the state and its citizens, and the formation of a system to completely alter our mentality as citizens so we can stop treating this country, as Kostas Kavathas once wrote, “as if we were its conquerors.”

Vivian Stergiou

Author

I expect a public health system. A real public health system. Not vouchers to use at private clinics, nor subsidies that we can use in any way we see fit. Public hospitals that are not crumbling, ambulances that arrive on time, the elimination of waiting times and staff that will not need to constantly be giving 110% as if they are on a frontline. In general, I would like working conditions for the medical and nursing staff that will make Greece a good career and life choice for young scientists. I am tired of them moving abroad or having them fight for the bare essentials in the few free hours they are given to compose themselves. Political clientelism in the appointment of hospital administrations and the setting of national health policies by individuals with unrelated specialties, qualifications, and experiences, do not help either, I believe.

I would like more support systems for those that do not have any safety net. Access to medicines and medical care for those that do not have any family, work, or friends, but have a dependency on illegal substances, illnesses, or mental illnesses.

I would also like to stop presenting access to mental health services as a luxury pastime of lazy middle-class snowflakes. It is essential care for some people and a rather beneficial service for many Greeks. Finally, I expect a ministerial cabinet with many women that will be a powerful message for little girls.