By Alexis Papachelas

The 1980s caused great damage to Greece. That’s when we learned to live in a society where anything goes. It started out with “gifts” to civil servants and led to the free-for-all that we now see. We have reached the point where we hold serious discussions about whether even a godlike politician would be able to find 12 completely honest and competent people to form a government.

The interesting thing is that we have even begun to form ideological constructs, attempting to explain the unacceptable. I heard a serious minister claiming that “politics has nothing to do with ethics” and I remembered that famous saying by former Prime Minister Costas Simitis: “There can be no development without corruption.” So, must we all raise our hands in surrender and limit ourselves to proclaiming: “This is Greece”? Or should we accept the other argument I hear with increasing frequency: “It doesn’t matter if he is a bit of a crook, as long as he gets something done”?

Is there any other way? Possibly, but it is difficult and requires daring; it allows no short cuts; it means clashing with those who have turned extortion into an institution; it demands inspiration so that new blood can be brought into politics. There are no political “giants” on the horizon and the citizens can see this. They understand that the present political personel – irrespective of party – is consumed by its wheeling and dealing with media and other interests. They see politicians who are woefully out of step with the times and to whom they would not even entrust the workings of a small store. They are insulted when politicians behave in a nouveau-riche manner, as if they revelled at a party with businessmen who make dark deals and media interests that destroy their credibility with promises of support.

It is impressive to see how the virus of compromise and new money has broken into the political DNA across the spectrum.

Prime Minister Karamanlis was given a mandate to change all this, because people had seen the impasse. But he compromised on cadres, he accepted mediocrities and allowed others to make deals with outside interests. Now he finds himself in difficulty. I assume that nothing irritates him more than being criticized by the apologists of the most corrupt periods of governance. Yet opinion polls and talk in the coffee shops consistently show that the people continue to trust him. But he must once again find the political reflexes that brought him to power, promote the young cadres who turned out good and push ahead with his reformist agenda which he sees clearly.

The fatigue of five years in power is obvious, the terrain is difficult and the problems immense, whatever we might say and write from the comfort of our offices, far from the madhouse of daily politics. But what makes a gifted politician is to be able to get up when everyone is in a hurry to usher him out the door and find the strength demanded of him by an impatient and anarchic society. It’s a tough task. But then who said that being prime minister of Greece would be easy?