OPINION

No a la carte consensus

Kathimerini has always backed the need for national understanding when it comes to the big issues. Consensus, however, can only be achieved on a solid basis.

Consensus cannot be a chance or an a la carte affair, with the prime minister looking to other parties only when he needs their backing in a crucial vote. It should refer to a critical mass of pivotal issues and have a lasting effect.

Consensus ought to be honest and not the product of tactics. The fact that a meeting of party leaders has been called at a time when the main opposition is essentially leaderless raises some valid questions and suspicion. National understanding also presupposes a mea culpa by those who discarded it in the past – along with country’s fate.

Consensus is vital in education, justice, security and foreign affairs. Alexis Tsipras needs to prove he means it as a genuine solution, rather than a distraction or a move to bypass his own dead ends.

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