What is a mayor? Only the naïve would truly believe that they are locally elected leaders who spend their time on common affairs, as part of a multi-level democracy in an ideally-organized state.
Looking back though, we will see that the life and times of most mayors were never something to write home about. On the contrary, many were accused of common law crimes. There have even been cases that were disputed as being extreme, such as the life imprisonment of the former mayor of Thessaloniki, which established the estimation that local government is rife with scandal.
Despite this, some continue to give great importance in the municipal elections and associate their results with the progress of the current government. It is the tradition that gives political meaning to these elections. It is certain that the country’s fate will not change if one or another candidate is elected – Greece will be Greece even if one of those pudgy bullies was elected mayor.
It is obvious that the country didn’t change a bit when politicians were elected mayors, who during a certain period appeared to represent political movements that turned out to have more bark than bite.
In the 1950s the Left celebrated the election of P. Katsotas and Angelos Tsoukalas – did anything change? Over the past few decades, the parties have tried to take advantages of the municipal elections and have committed senior party members to the “fray”. The political end result is null. The one or two cases of skillful people (the “apolitical” Dimitris Beis being a characteristic example) who actually achieved something cannot alter things, they do not justify those who tried to transfer the worse sides of parliamentarism in the municipal councils…
Something similar is going on with the European elections. Everyone is getting ready for a tense election that may turn out to be… a fizzle, since they are about worn-out slogans than political programs. And those voting according to their political line must not forget what happened to the Communist Party in the 1980s, when two MPs (Lyk. K. and Em. Y.) were unexpectedly elected, whom they treated like bimbos.
Stavros P. Psycharis
– Originally published in the weekend print edition
