The celebration of a national holiday is synonymous in the collective memory with our ancestors’ struggle for freedom and heroism. It would be good however to remember in such moments of national pride, that in every struggle, in every battle there are also moments that refer to timeless problems that continue to affect us to this day.
We now learn about it in school, but the struggle of 1821 had its darker moments, with internal conflicts and personal strategies that led the war of independence to a deadlock many times. The result was that the intervention of the great powers at the time was necessary, as was their active involvement in the country’s political life, with all the known side effects, in order to keep the young Greek State alive.
We are decades away from this era, but the same problems persist and make the survival of a small country in an unstable and constantly changing world difficult. The political conflicts, personal and partisan pursuits, the inability to coordinate on a national level against the dangers we face today, are unfortunately the reality that we all experience.
The financial uncertainty we face, the lack of a domestic and greater cooperation with the partners we chose, are the result of a problematic perception we have about our limitations and abilities. The country, the people and the economy have been struggling for months because our political system was unable to coordinate on a few self-evident facts. It was necessary for the Prime Minister to visit Berlin so that some could understand that a frontal clash with a leading power in Europe – whether we like it or not – will lead nowhere.
It is time that everyone realized – especially those in power – that we cannot carry on with this extreme situation anymore. We may not like the institutions in today’s Europe, but for the time being we cannot change them on our own. Let us make peace with them, recover as a country and economy, so that we may later claim something better.
TO VIMA
