OPINION

Political farce?

Whatever proper things a politician may say or do have no value whatsoever if they are not said or done at the right time. So, whatever Prime Minister Costas Simitis has been saying – to his party, government and electorate – may be correct but is either entirely useless or has little value because of the time he has chosen to say it. When a political leader wins the general elections and immediately after the victory pledges to appoint new politicians, with fresh ideas, to the «front line» of governance, to use this foundation to create a dynamic government and to promote a major national plan he has formulated and is soon to announce, his speech promises to be interesting. But when all the above is said by a prime minister who is just one year away from the end of his four-year term in office, who then contradicts everything he has said within the next 24 hours, then we can only really see this as a pathetic political farce. Indeed, the situation for the government is worse now than it was before Simitis announced his new «initiatives» – perhaps this can be seen as some kind of achievement. To add to the comedy, Simitis embarked on his «new beginning» with a warning to his ministers that if they do not perform well, they will be replaced. But if we are to judge from the recent reshuffle, it is more likely that the prime minister’s ministers have realized the opposite – that those who to intend to work diligently are the ones in danger of losing their posts.

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