A negative climate?
In any interview you read or statements you hear on television or on the radio, all the members and ministers of the governing party acknowledge that a «negative climate» exists for PASOK, but all insist that – as regards the outcome of forthcoming elections – «nothing has been decided yet, everything can change, there is plenty of time until the polls…» And each of them proposes a set of measures and initiatives which, if implemented, they maintain, will change the general picture and prospects for the better and even clinch victory! Such behavior is entirely understandable and in fact to be expected from professional politicians. Indeed, it would be crazy and inconceivable if they were to come out in public and acknowledge that they have lost «the game» from now, that their performance has been so despairingly poor that the chance of a turnaround in the countdown to the »critical hour» is virtually impossible, that the mistakes and oversights they have made until now cannot be magically undone, in order to pleasantly surprise the public so that it will change its opinion. Fully aware of of the «harmful consequences of… defeatism,» they are obliged to appear optimistic, even certain, that victory will be theirs… People don’t swallow just any old propaganda without consideration. If they were living in a developing – or at least not declining – economy, they would recognize who deserved their praise regardless of what the opposition or press may say.
