Postponment until 2023, 2024…
2022 ends against a backdrop of unimaginable polarization and toxicity. Still, many people believe that we have not seen anything yet and that in the next three to four months we will be surprised by how much lower the public debate can go. I hope they are wrong, because the country cannot take it.
Serious and sensible people exist, on both sides of the political aisle. They are much fewer than the silly ones, whom you also run into in every party – they are a universal phenomenon. But the serious ones exist, and when you talk to them – behind closed doors – you think to yourself, “Yes, there is hope for the country to do better.” You find that measured and capable people in public life can agree on the minimum of things that can and must be achieved.
Justice is an example. Apart from ideological confrontations or obsessions, the belief is now firmly established that unless something changes in the operation and administration of justice, the country is not going to move forward. No one is going to invest, for example, if court decisions are not issued quickly and within a predictable timeframe. Nor will anyone believe that Greek institutions work when high-profile cases take years to be heard in court and are sometimes dismissed because the statute of limitations expired. The issue is not ideological: It is practical and unionistic. We need a government that will be ready to clash with any interests and a very broad alliance that will support this reform.
However, it is one of those changes that will be difficult to achieve if the government and the opposition do not come to an agreement, at least to some extent – any government with any opposition. I know this sounds paradoxical, if not quaint, in this day and age. But it is important to achieve it, or at least to try.
After all, we have tried everything in order to make the difficult reforms. From bailouts that put the proverbial gun in our heads to very broad agreements (e.g. for the changes in tertiary education) that dissipated because the fear of the political cost prevailed.
Come to think of it, who would lose from such an honest effort? Some unions may be displeased. But the vast majority of the public would be happy to see a government that wants to change things and seeks consensus with the opposition. And it would also welcome an opposition that would back serious reform.
For now, let’s not expect much. Apparently, no reform in justice will happen until the elections. Or to put it another way, this particular reform has been postponed for 2023, maybe even 2024…
