Everything that is revealed and described in today’s edition of To Vima regarding the collapse of the G. Papandreou government and the peak of the crisis that brought Greece one step away from exiting (or rather being expelled) from the European Union seem like a political fiction novel. The events are dramatic, sometimes tragic, sometimes comic; imagine, for example, the French President standing on a chair and adorning the then Prime Minister of Greece with various expletives.
It would be perhaps prudent to set aside the gaffes, chatter and risky handling of a government that paid the political cost of foolishness. History will judge those who turned out not to live up to the expectations of the circumstances.
Those who see the glass half-full appear optimistic about the future. They believe that the crisis has been overcome and that Greece continues to be apart of the united Europe.
The country appears to be finding its balance and Greece is increasingly viewed as an indispensable aspect of Europe. The extremist slogans about the EU and NATO are long-outdated. Few people even consider charges of treason…
They never were and there never will be any traitorous governments in Greece. Foolishness, however, is a given.
Everything that went on in the past few years constitutes a valuable lesson for the politicians governing Greece today or whose ambition is to rule in the future.
It is no time for adventurism. History often repeats itself as a tragedy. The “I don’t know” and “I didn’t understand” excuses are unacceptable after everything that was revealed.
Stavros P. Psycharis
– Originally published in the Saturday print edition
