Exercising power
The political power of a party and its leader is like a big inheritance – you can use it productively or you can waste it. There is, however, one difference: You can preserve – or even increase – an inheritance, and often we regard this as the best way to make the most of it. But there is no sense in simply maintaining, or increasing, political power – the only way of using it productively is to exercise it, indeed to exercise it for the common good… So, what is New Democracy going to do with the popular support it has won, which is only comparable to that achieved by Andreas Papandreou is 1981? Many maintain that PASOK’s party founder wasted his influence. Others believe that Greek society had reached a dead end and was in need of fundamental change. If ND follows the same tactic it did while in opposition and essentially becomes the manager of citizens’ everyday problems, it is virtually certain that it will fail as a government. Everyday problems – the gulf between rising prices and stagnant salaries, along with many others – are never ending and are unlikely to be solved over the next four or even eight years. And it is not just the government’s job to solve these problems – citizens need to adopt a greater sense of responsibility too. But the greatest challenge faced by the current government is to establish a system based on meritocracy, equality and justice before the law…
