For a ‘sacred’ jersey, for a penalty…
From a purely mechanistic and rather arbitrary point of view, the voting public is the sum total of “the people” who have close or loose ties to political parties of all stripes, plus the unaffiliated, the indifferent, and those who reject politics. Of course, every party and every party leader believes that under their banner they have amassed the genuine and virtuous people. Those who have a clear conscience and clean hands, who enlist to promote noble ideas and not the logic and morality of personal gain. The “corrupt” individuals are always with the opposing party.
It’s impossible of course to provide tangible proof, thus, each party states confidently that it authentically represents the real people, and all together, populist and anti-populist – by their own admission – continue to take oaths in the name of the people who are ideally pure – and therefore nonexistent. Even the Ghostbusters from the famous 1984 movie would not be able to track down such an invisible, pure crowd. The “people,” a creature of protean nature, are neither one-dimensional nor ideologically unsullied. They produce history, as much as history produces them.
In similar fashion, in Greek sports, the “people” are the sum of those who root for a specific soccer team (all other sports function as substitutes), plus the ideological opponents of “the Round Goddess,” as Greeks like to dub the soccer ball, and those who are indifferent to the sport. Just as in politics, each team and each team leader believes that they have on their side the most sports-loving section of the crowd, which never behaves like hooligans, although they are caught up in numerous clashes. The official announcements of soccer clubs are issued in the name of “their people.” And quite often team managers succumb to the temptation to use “their people” as their army, confident that they can influence fans even off the pitch. They take everyone, whether an organized fan or not, for granted.
Both “peoples,” those involved in political parties and in soccer, are not the same crowd, but they have common features: They react angrily, they hate their opponents and when they vent on social media they use the same crude, sexist language. Perhaps there are some people who will decide what to vote with “a sacred jersey” and a penalty in their mind. How many could they be? If we believe that there will be many, we must also believe that, after the strongly anti-government announcements of Olympiakos club in November last year, following a penalty in favor of archenemy PAO, and then more recently the penalty in favor of AEK, the election result has already been decided. We don’t even need a video assistant referee.
