Unholy alliance
So it’s not like the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939 or the Sklavenas-Sofoulis agreement in 1936. This is a bipartisan deal, proof of the foolishness of those who signed it, and proof of the corruption of certain local Socialist party organizations. I am referring to the cooperation protocol signed in Corfu ahead of local elections between PASOK’s municipal candidate Georgios Macheimaris and Georgios Merianos of the ultra-right-wing LAOS party. The deal was revealed by New Democracy Deputy Nikos Georgiadis about a week ago. He called it an act of political folly and explained that, though Greece has seen many immoral political deals between ideologically incompatible parties, no one has been so foolish as to sign such texts in the open. Any such agreement between LAOS and the ruling conservatives would have sparked a frenzy of negative publicity in the self-styled progressive media. Now they have mostly kept mum while PASOK’s spokesman was reduced to a brief comment saying that the agreement is outside the political framework. Really? Interestingly, Georgiadis paid a visit to the office of George Papandreou and spoke with the Socialist leader’s close aide Regina Valtzeli and the director of his political bureau, Pavlos Geroulanos. Georgiadis also briefed Alekos Papadopoulos, the PASOK chief for local and municipal elections. But they all turned a deaf ear as the deal concealed big political and financial interests. It’s only after the story made the headlines that people reacted. Of course, the signed document was marked confidential but it carried a note of being a protocol of honor and ethos. And if you’re wondering what this is all about, ask the head of the civil service inspectorates, who is looking into Macheimaris’s record in the prefecture. PASOK’s socialist orthodoxy instead hid an orgy of political corruption.
