The quality of our local government is up to us
Everything suggests, unfortunately, that we are about to fall into the same political trap. The leaderships of Greece’s parties are showing that they have already fallen into it by stubbornly refusing to learn from the many serious – especially in recent years – and painful mistakes of the past.
This trap that we are about to stumble into in the upcoming local elections on October 8 is particularly evident in regional government, with party staffs appearing to be thinking along the customary lines of seeking to flaunt the party’s political influence by hoping to get its candidates elected in every region of the country. A similar mentality prevails in the selection of candidates for the country’s larger municipalities.
What this tells us is that parties are attempting to steer voters into choosing a regional governor or mayor based on their party allegiances, rather than on their abilities.
We all tend to give the impression that we have forgotten what has gone on in the past, until we leave the polling station and experience the harsh Greek reality – when, in other words, it is too late for corrections. These are the moments when we are called upon to face the accumulated shortcomings and inadequacies of the state and society. These are the times when things like extreme natural phenomena, which are becoming more frequent as a result of the climate crisis, test the endurance of our already problematic infrastructure.
Examples? The litter- and leaf-clogged gutters overflowing with water on the side of the roads in every rainstorm. The failure to clear public or even private plots of land from the dry grass and other flammable materials, when we know our country is prone to destructive and deadly wildfires. Not to mention the delimitation of public and private spaces on the beaches.
How many times have we not seen and heard a mayor shifting responsibility for problems to the regional governor and vice-versa? How many times have our elected officials hidden behind opaque areas of jurisdiction to shirk their responsibility for the negative situations that make us angry, or make us resign ourselves to the notion that nothing can be fixed in this country?
When times are tough, no political color or party (and certainly no neo-Nazi revanchist) is going to make our lives better. Only we can do that – by making the proper choices at the ballot box.
