OPINION

ND’s difficult task

In the exchanges between the leaders of ruling PASOK and opposition New Democracy in Parliament, there is generally a balance of scoring points for publicity and making proposals with substance. The speech by ND leader Costas Karamanlis last Wednesday was lucid, weighty and well-substantiated, and presented a broad spectrum of political views without attempting to impress or resorting to sloganeering. Evidently Karamanlis’s speech had been prepared by a large team of party officials whose more than satisfactory collective achievement demonstrates two things about the opposition party. Firstly, that ND comprises very competent cadres, and secondly that the party is making a serious effort to prepare for electoral victory. This preparation – as Karamanlis noted in his speech – is composed of two phases which will develop side by side in the countdown to the elections. Firstly, efforts will be made to identify all problems on every level of government activity, so that citizens can get an impression of the real political situation; and secondly, the opposition party – which is likely to inherit this state of affairs – will propose solutions to the Greek people as to how these problems can be solved. This double thrust is crucial because the government will no doubt continue to present the public with a glossed-over and misleading image, especially in the economic realm.

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