Opinion
Institutionally speaking, the mission and aim of a politician is to serve the interests of the country and its people. By performing this service, a successful minister is also helping his party. If the politician blatantly fails as a minister but then is called to serve his party – and what is more in a senior party post – then we can only draw one conclusion: that the interests of the country and the people do not necessarily coincide with the interests of the party. This means that a party may fail in the governance of the country and at the same time run for re-election, seeing this not as a reward for its contribution but a target to be achieved by some other, obscure means. Hence, party interest obviously prevails at the expense of the country… The reasons why former Public Works Minister and current PASOK General Secretary Costas Laliotis decided to abandon the government for the party post are obvious. As a minister, he failed to promote his private ambition to succeed Prime Minister Costas Simitis. He is now trying to achieve this as PASOK general secretary and spin doctor in view of the coming elections. His aim is to reap the fruits of PASOK’s potential electoral victory so as to take the lead in the struggle for succession to Simitis… The year 2001, the first of the 21st century and of the third millennium after Christ’s birth, was extremely turbulent; it was soaked in blood, conflicts and wars. One cannot possibly forget the thousands of innocent victims who died in the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the US Pentagon, the war in Afghanistan, and the bloody conflict in FYROM, which was finally contained at the eleventh hour.
