Greece has been led to a dead end, economic, social, political, cultural. But this is not the first time. Not even the second. Και “τὸ δὶς ἐξαμαρτεῖν οὐκ ἀνδρὸς σοφοῦ”. Greece has reached this impasse a few times. In 1893, when Charilaos Trikoupis declared the bankruptcy of Greece with the phrase "Gentlemen, unfortunately we went bankrupt", he obviously knew that this is a story that is repeated, but no one imagined that it could be repeated in the 21st century. Greece, exhausted by the blows and looting of conquerors, invaders, interests of great powers, has always managed to survive through solidarity and awaken the national consciousness. But, unfortunately, after every redemptive liberation, the National Divide was waiting. Either these were the civil conflicts of 1823, or this was the National Divide of 1914, or the turbulent years of the 30s, or the great Greek civil war of 1946, or even the dictatorships (Pangalos, Metaxa, Papadopoulos, Ioannidis) , Greece is suffering from the internal civil conflicts that catalyze the unity.
This is happening even now. At a time when the Greek people should have solidarity, however, revolutionary events and hoods burned monuments and neoclassical buildings with which a Greek philhellene (!), Ernest Ziller began to reshape post-revolutionary Greece from 1882. Burning of ancient monuments, anarchies and Molotov cocktails are not the solution to the problem. The Greeks themselves proved that only with solidarity can they overcome any reef. This solidarity is what is needed in difficult times.
So, I was observing the extraordinary assembly of the Greek Parliament last Sunday for the voting of the new financial package. At that most critical moment in the history of post-war Greece, the party members staged demonstrations of party adolescence and attributed responsibilities to the rival parties, while a few meters away Athens was burning!
The new memorandum that has already been voted may be catastrophic, both for the economy and for the Greeks themselves, but the most catastrophic of all would be bankruptcy. And let them not be deceived by the conspiracy theories circulating in the last few days (sic!) With the excuse that "the Europeans are to blame for all this", the troika, Merkel and Sarkozy. This is certain, that is, that the Great Powers (always) look at their interest and what they will gain from history, but on the other hand in this tragic quagmire, in this tragic situation, Greece was led, unfortunately, perhaps by on her own. Each election was full of political promises, which in the end turned out to be promises that could not be fulfilled. Every politician wanted to reap more than power, but in order to be elected he had to promise more. Conspiracy theories, then, may be true, but the problem arises internally. And no matter how much we celebrate and curse the politicians, either in Greece or in Cyprus, we must not forget that we voted for them, we elected them and we gave them the right to judge our fate…
Our only salvation is the national solidarity that will accompany us in these difficult trials. We stand on the side of Greece, then, but we must also take a vigilant critical look at our own politicians to keep our state tidy and to avoid the worst.