As the conflict within the so-called Center Left increase, New Democracy’s government becomes more entrenched; the party of Konstantinos Karamanlis, a political leader who seems to have broken down the walls – ideological, social and financial – that separated the Greek people from… Kolokotronis’ times.
At the end of the 1980s, K. Mitsotakis (initially a centrist and since the Apostasy a rightist), along with KKE’s leader Charilaos Florakis and the head of the splinter group that broke away in 1968 (“KKE of Interior”) Leonidas Kyrkos set up a right wing / communist coalition government that stunned everyone who believed that there were serious political differences between the two, in Parliament, the streets and squares, where politicians exchange accusations and threats. We refer to him as the “Elder of Democracy”, but living witnesses quote him telling his diplomatic advisor “Johnny, my boy, don’t you understand that the only nationalists in the government are the two of us?”
After the significant changes in Greek politics, any interpretation of actions and decisions, all passing comments are easily explained… Those, for example, who consider Mr. Lafazanis a fanatic should not forget that the current leader of the extremists in the Left was one of Ch. Florakis’ closest associates who abandoned the One and Only Party, after the collapse of real socialism…
The upcoming European elections will act as a true poll. What is at stake is whether one of the usual changes in Greece will take place, or whether these elections will be the start of political developments for a New Greece.
Stavros P. Psycharis
Originally published in the Saturday print edition
