Moderate and humble
A prominent banker told me the other day, «For over 20 years, I have financed Greece’s biggest entrepreneurs but I can assure you I have never joined them on a yacht trip.» Government cadres seem to have forgotten the prime minister’s calls for modesty and humility and appear increasingly vulnerable to the temptation of wealth and the good life. Early pledges about clamping down on graft and corruption have not prevented New Democracy officials from attending elite dinners, sailing the Aegean on luxury yachts, or working out in exclusive fitness clubs. Sure, conservative officials are no match for their Socialist predecessors with their luxury villas and provocative lifestyles. Nevertheless, Greece is in a campaign period and PASOK’s spin doctors are going full throttle so Costas Karamanlis must keep a rein on government officials. People have always judged their leaders on the basis of their lifestyles. Back in 2001, the late Theodoros Karatzas, then governor of the Bank of Greece, remarked on the wealth of PASOK’s government officials: «What bothers me most,» he told me, «is not that they made fortunes almost overnight, but rather their penchant for bragging about their lavish lifestyles.» Karatzas came from a bourgeois class background. People like him enjoyed huge fortunes but did not show off or talk about the money they spent on clothes, restaurants, trips and receptions. There are about a dozen Greek businesses out there competing globally that make big exports and big profits. But their owners have never rushed to pose for glossy magazine covers by their swimming pools. Yiannis Costopoulos of Alpha Bank owns a studio on the island of Myconos, while a ministry’s general secretary owns three villas. Do these magazines ever write about people like Papalexopoulos or Stasinopoulos? Never. But they are full of stories of the nouveaux riches and corrupt TV stars.
