Isn’t it unfair?
I borrowed the title from the ending of all the short ads being posted by opposition SYRIZA as part of its online election campaign. The aim of the leftists with this campaign is to draw attention to all the factors (like unemployment and the high cost of renting a house) hobbling the country’s young people and preventing them from taking an interest in politics and the electoral process. The responsibility for this, SYRIZA suggests, lies squarely with the ruling conservatives.
Has the government’s recent legislative initiative to stop a neo-Nazi from running in the elections caused “fresh friction with the opposition” – as we’re wont to say – which is preparing its own proposal on the same issue? If so, why? Can a person who has been convicted to a long prison sentence for being part of a criminal organization assume the role of political leader? Can the party he establishes run for Parliament? Does the state have a duty to prevent this from happening (within the confines of the Constitution) or not?
Sure, all of the country’s democratic parties agree that there is only one place for neo-Nazis. Nevertheless, some of them also claim to be concerned about the possibility of such a ban acting as a “side door” for a “domino of bans” and for “political games” of an “extremist” nature.
This whole issue is a crash test for the political system with a profound social impact: How far can skepticism be allowed to prevail when it is being abused for electoral purposes, used to simply say no to everything? How different would the political landscape be if the opposition said yes? It could agree in principle while noting that there were points that needed further examination.
How can we possibly hope to achieve #JusticeEverywhere without an elementary level of dialogue and trust? How can a country move forward when its top political parties cannot agree on stopping a criminal from running for Parliament?
It’s easy to sling accusations online. There are always fresh faces and catchy new ideas to “expose” the rival side on social media. The problem, however, is that everyone knows what’s what. How successful can this flippant approach to serious issues hope to be when the generation it is appealing to experienced the sharpest edges of the economic crisis and the march of the neo-Nazis into Parliament?
You can’t win the trust of the country’s young people by acting cool. It takes more than a few slang catchphrases and political machinations. Is that unfair too?
