Greece is operating on the edge once again, like it has so many times before in the past few years.
The start of the crisis can be traced back to the first period after joining the EMU.
After the 2000 elections took place, there was a matter of structural changes that had to be taken, in order to safeguard the country within the competitive Economic and Monetary Union.
The response of the dominant forces in Greek society, the parties and the unions was negative.
In 2004 the Greek people believed in Kostas Karamanlis and gave him the mandate to implement the necessary changes. They profoundly trusted him. He, however, was hesitant.
Despite highlighting the reforms as a dominant matter, as the top priority and goal, he did not serve them. By 2007 he had already lost pace of the changes and reforms and was caught up in the dirt waters of constant management, where he spent the last reserves of the political capital that remained from the 2004 elections harvest.
In 2009 he unsuccessfully tried to warn about what was going to come. Essentially, he abandoned power. He handed it over to Giorgos Papandreou, who unfortunately did not have the necessary tools to understand the dangers the country faced.
His tenure was catastrophic from the start. He lost valuable time, extended the circumstances of the crisis and in the end he surrendered to creditors and partners, who treated Greece like the ultimate evil and wanted to intervene dynamically, like the colonialists used to do in their conquests in Africa and Asia.
As expected he was unable to follow the developments. He did not believe in the solution and as such, he was not suited to serve it. In fall 2011 he collapsed. He was replaced during the flight.
The Papadimos administration followed, which attempted to create a complete framework and time table for changes and reforms.
However the political rulers of that period did not give him the time he needed. Perhaps they felt a threat or maybe they were in a hurry to assume complete power and we ended up going to elections in May of 2012.
The results were not the best for those who instigated the early elections. The dominant parties had major loses. That is why Samaras and Venizelos went through repeat elections, where the dilemmas gave power to a coalition of forces that had to accept to serve a predetermined framework of changes and reforms from the start.
Without faith and devotion though, such cases are destined to fail.
That is more or less how we ended up again for the changes and reforms to be a prerequisite for a future and for progress.
Truth be told, the Greek political system with either find a formation that will truly serve these changes and reforms or it will cancel itself out.
So long as the political forces straddle between reforms and counter-reforms, they will fail and with them the country will fail.
Now is the time to choose the great and pure reform. Anyone accepting and serving it diligently will win. The Greek people will also win, after suffering and enduring so much…
Antonis Karakousis
