A joint effort for the common good
It might seem like pardonable pique. Nevertheless, there is something rather petty about PASOK cadres carping about the New Democracy government inaugurating venue after venue that the previous PASOK government had started. Either way, the venues would have been opened to the public and the responsible minister would have been invited to cut the ribbon. It is rather far-fetched to expect a current minister to invite his predecessor to officially open a new venue simply because the latter was minister when construction began. And indeed, in such cases, most ministers pay homage to the contribution of their predecessors rather than discrediting them. Naturally, before the March elections, many members of the then-ND opposition had expressed their «concern» that Olympic works would not be completed in time. But this is hardly surprising in the image war that constitutes pre-electoral campaigns. It was also the continuation of a tactic which has become common in Greek politics over the last couple of years – complaining about too much spin and too little action. But this time, the reality was different. No one is denying that the entire system has made a superhuman effort to complete works and tie up loose ends over the last critical period. This doesn’t mean that the «the others» sat and did nothing, or that without «this lot» we would be facing disaster now…
