In 1955 Konstantinos Karamanlis, with the royal approval, succeeded Alexandros Papagos in the leadership of the Right and formed ERE, the National Radical Union
ERE was abolished in 1974 by its own founder, who chose to name the traditional Right party “New Democracy”. The aggressive “radical” designation was forgotten in time, until the “Coalition of the Left and Progress” (Synaspismos) was renamed the “Coalition of the Radical Left”, namely SYRIZA.
The coincidental use of the aggressive designation by two parties suggests that in Greece you are what you say you are. The Right can present itself as the bastion of socialism, Centrists can be leftists, the Left can be split into domestic and foreign factions from Karamanlis’ radicals of the past, to Tsipras’ radicals of today.
It is clear that the confusion from this erratic political naming is harming the country and the people, while making it easier for the politicians to systematically break their fixed and election campaign promises.
The generalizations and slogs can lure the people, who often vote for what they are against, because they do not believe the grand speeches from the election balconies.
Unfortunately, barring a few exceptions, the parties do not have any plans. That is why the electoral body is trapped with political parties that say one thing and do another. They are trapped by the political rhetoric of party members who usually do not represent the dominant faction within their party when they speak.
In other words they all admit in private that the traditional political terms (Left, Right, Center, etc) do not reflect contemporary society.
They only way to clear up the political scene is for the parties vying for power to present specific plans to the people, where they will explain where they will find the funds for the implementation of their policy.
We need plans without masks. The political carnival is over.
Stavros P. Psycharis
