An elderly journalist, who worked for an evening newspaper as an investigative reporter and had a knack for filing complaints, once dragged a taxi driver to the police department in Philothei, because he thought he had scammed him. After filing his complaint and returned to his newspaper offices, he hand-wrote a 22-page report that ended with the phrase “the scum in question was a bastard and a communist”!
In our era the “commie bashers” have eclipsed due to a lack of targets. Nowadays we have those who are “involved behind the scenes”, a cheap characterization used by foolish or desperate politicians against their opponents.
When someone refers to others being involved behind the scenes, one must bear in mind that you cannot have those involved behind the scenes without politicians.
It takes two to tango and at least one of them must be a politician.
Of course, the aforementioned characterizations, commie basher and being involved behind the scenes, are not equal.
However, they are offered up as cheap slander.
Our current, once-promising House of Parliament has turned into a battleground of yelling and cursing, barely four months in. We should have expected such a development. Vulgar insults, quarrels, slanderous accusations thrown left and right, even the use of force have turned Parliament into a pathetic gathering of politicians. Uncritical and not having learned anything from the past, they employ the slogans about the actions of big interests that want to fight them.
One would expect that after all that followed from the occasional accusations made by political leaders about big interests, that the fairy tale would end here. However the beast appears to be ready to rear its head again.
Fortunately the government (namely the ones who work) is dealing with foreign affairs, where there is no room for error. Because those who voted for SYRIZA are waiting in vain to see government work and as the weeks go by, only the prime minister represents the government – however one swallow doesn’t make a summer. Nevertheless, the Prime Minister’s European affairs are about to finish. His friends are waiting for him to pick up the broom.
Stavros P. Psycharis
Originally published in the Sunday print edition
