Denying reality
The tactic was patented by PASOK while it was in government: Whichever minister fell wide of the mark, and however useless the government’s plans turned out to be, the reaction would always be the same – to deny reality. Government officials would nearly always claim that there had been a «communications problem,» that its PR strategy had not been effective, that everything had gone as planned but that it had been unable to convince the public of this. And so they mulled their communications strategy and thought about replacing their image makers until they eventually fell from power, without ever losing the conviction that they had excelled at every level. But PASOK’s patent was not wasted. It was swiftly and lovingly embraced by the New Democracy government – just to show that there is no difference between the parties on the really important issues. As a result, the fatal Chinook crash was blamed upon a «communications problem,» as was the claim by ND’s Euro MP Giorgos Dimitrakopoulos that the government’s fiscal review had not been properly undertaken. It has also become a handy excuse for the behavior of Defense Minister Spilios Spiliotopoulos on many an occasion. Both the government and opposition have engaged in profound consideration, not of the problems plaguing the country, but of how best to communicate them to the public…
