Moving backwards
Greece is moving backwards at great speed – and no one seems to be doing anything to stop it. Earlier this week, a group of Greek deputies (16 from New Democracy, one from coalition partners Independent Greeks and one independent) submitted a question in Parliament asking if the SYRIZA-led administration intended to fulfill its “moral obligation” for constructing the long-elusive “Pledge to the Nation.”
They were referring to plans to build a monumental church (envisaged on the Tourkovounia hills, north of the city center, in order to be visible from most of the capital) as a symbol of people’s gratitude to God for liberating the Greek nation from the Turks.
The project was announced in 1968 by dictator Giorgos Papadopoulos. The junta in turn drew inspiration from a promise, as it were, given at the Fourth National Assembly in Argos, in 1829.
Interestingly, the idea was rekindled by MPs backing a leftist government. It was also backed by New Democracy MPs who thankfully later withdrew their support at the order of their leader.
Too many worrying signs that the country is moving in the wrong direction.
