A critical month
September is always a critical month for political and economic affairs, marking the end of the summer holidays, a return to everyday life, political exchanges both inside and outside Parliament, preparations for the budget for the following year and, of course, the extremely significant prime-ministerial speech at the launch of the Thessaloniki international trade fair which sets out the government’s economic policy (the extent to which these proclamations and pledges will be realized is a matter for debate). As things would have it, this September is even more critical than it has been for the past 11 years. This is because the party currently in government had been in opposition for so many years and now faces the challenge of proving that all its proposals for «better and more effective governance» are the product of a well-thought-out policy… What usually happens however, especially in Greece, is that pre-election proclamations and plans have little in common with post-election policy. And the strange thing is that this is accepted by citizens (who realize that political parties must exaggerate to a certain extent to win votes) and who also realize that, regardless of the depth of insight an opposition party may claim to have into social and economic problems, it will only really understand what it is dealing with when it finds itself in power…
