Kouris’s gift to PASOK
It is now, during this political crisis – further complicated by allegations of corruption – that the prime minister has chosen to create a «climate for change» in the political system, model of government and public administration. The doubts that haphazardly began to be aired, with the views of Cabinet secretary Socrates Cosmidis or the «neo-reformist» Public Order Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis, have essentially been roused by publisher Giorgos Kouris and allegations in his daily Avriani. Because of him, PASOK deputies can now come out with demands for «political reform» and with «radical» proposals. If the publisher in question had not decided – for his own reasons, of course – to air the dirty laundry of various members of the ruling party in public, which of the targeted PASOK deputies would be speaking out loudly today, albeit vaguely, of the need for «political modernization»? And would the likable Mr Chrysochoidis have experienced that moving moment of honesty the other day when he described political parties as «populist» and bastions of patronage in need of major change, thus indirectly criticizing himself and his colleagues? But however much Simitis wants to create a «climate for imminent change,» he doesn’t appear to want to address the public directly. So, he uses the tried and tested method of sending out feelers in order to assess reactions. How original!
