Observations have been made over the past five years of the great financial crisis have to outline how the Greek problem has gradually developed.
The first cracks that appear are in the financial sector, where the decisions are usually insufficient and don’t create any sense of stability.
On the contrary, they increase the sense of insecurity, which is aggravated by the social consequences and the ensuing reactions that usually emerge from the attempts to correct the course of the financial developments.
When the social reactions become intense, then almost automatically – or rather at the first opportunity, whether elections or a critical vote – then the crisis spreads over to the body electorate, with all the usual consequences.
In the past few years and under the pressure of repeated cycles of the crisis governments have fallen, factions have declined, political divs have seen their career end, new parties and politicians have emerged, but yet the financial problem has remained unresolved.
There were even periods during which the political entanglement exacerbated the financial problem, perpetuating the vicious cycle. In the meantime, during when the political problem was addressed, the financial crisis returned stronger and necessitating even harsher measures than before, infuriating society and in turn triggering a new round of politics.
It is unfortunate that this five year period of the crisis cycle repeating itself did not occur under normal conditions, nor did it allow the cultivation of a national self-realization, which could offer a final and true way out of the crisis.
Instead, all it revealed was so-called “promotional heroes”. Something similar is going on now as well. We are going through another repetition of the financial, social and political cycle.
Since the 2012 elections 14 new parties, small and large, have emerged! At that rate, there will probably be just as many more new ones before and after the upcoming European elections, whatever that may mean; the political map will resemble a galaxy of stars.
The danger that Greece currently faces in the current critical phase is for to reach an unprecedented political dead end.
Like the necessary conditions arising to exit the crisis, only for the country to fall in the hands of people who think that governing a country is a simple and easy game.
However everyone wanting to get involved in politics and have the ambition of leading the country must understand that the time will come when they will be faced with the harsh, Greek reality. And they must also rest assured, it will be ruthless against them…
Antonis Karakousis
– Originally published in the weekend print edition
