At a time when SYRIZA and PASOK are raising the issue of wiretapping very high in the center-left, we have continuous agitations starting with the event in honor of former Prime Minister Kostas Simitis that took place yesterday at the “Hellenic World Culture Center”, but also with the reactivation of ” Circle of Ideas” of Vangelis Venizelou.
In a way, all these fermentations of the last few days around the Pasokogen think tanks are obviously connected to each other in the sense that the vacuum that exists in the space of the Center does not seem to be covered by either Kasselakis’ SYRIZA, nor Androulakis’ PASOK.
The event and the total return of Simitis to the fore, which was organized by the NETWORK for Reform in Greece and Europe, the Jacques Delors Institute and the magazine Reform with the support of the Delphi Economic Forum, is not at all accidental. Nor, of course, the activation of Anna Diamantopoulos in the role of coordinator, who has distanced herself from Nikos Androulakis’s PASOK anyway. Of course, Vangelis Venizelos, whose think tank is looking for ways to “express” the centrists, keeps the same distance…
The present and the future of the country’s political system and democratic functioning were the subject of the discussions during the first day of the e-kyklos conference entitled “Asymmetries and National Agenda”. Summarizing the discussions, Evangelos Venizelos said that “We are now making the yeast. We mentally work out the next day’s plan.”
Anna Diamantopoulou “sees” a new party
THE Anna Diamantopoulou he noted that the dominant party in Greece has always been the Center and the Centers are now too many and lend their vote. They give it and take it back. He noticed that there is a problem in the Western political system with the dividing line between the political systems being Right-Left and added: “Today there is a need for a new political proposal. The liberal parties maintain a basic framework and in some issues it approaches the wants of society, but it is necessary to form a new party that will have elements of liberalism with a modern agenda of the new era (Climate change, Demographics, Immigration)”.
Mrs. Diamantopoulou underlined that “the political system, the parties will give answers and they will be done with ruptures of the past. With sweeping reforms. The other pole will not be a new better ND but a new voice. If the current opposition does not grasp this meaning, it will not be able to respond. The political personnel required is being incubated but we don’t yet know how and when it will be expressed.”
This void in the space of the center-left creates conditions of omnipotence for the ND and at the same time attempts are made to fill this void with old “totems” of PASOK, but it is doubtful whether they can inspire in the year 2023. The faces of this old PASOK, not only have overtaken by developments, but they have governed and several of them have left a negative impression on the electorate for many and varied reasons.
The need for multi-level modernization and reforms in Greece is one thing, and a return to the past is another. The new generations do not know either Mr. Simitis or Mr. Venizelos. Can something new come from old materials? The answer is obvious. The “sanctification” of an era of fake prosperity is not a compass of progress. Unfortunately, the failure of mainly SYRIZA, but also of the current PASOK to change and adapt to the conditions of the new era, forces many to look for “skeletons from the closet” to sell some political narrative, whatever it may be.
