Taking stock
In its three-and-a-half years in power, the conservative administration can no doubt be proud of certain achievements. On the other hand, some important issues were completely overlooked. For one, the government had no environmental policy and responsibility for the environment was left with the Public Works Ministry. The government was also tardy in tackling key issues such as the reform of the crumbling public administration inherited from the socialists. Costas Karamanlis unabashedly forgot his outspoken charges against the «pimps pulling the strings.» In fact, these ne’er-do-wells have grown even stronger and wealthier. ND also failed to resolve longstanding problems that placed a growing burden on taxpayers, such as the issue of state-run Olympic Airlines. It failed to punish a single tax-dodger and continued to swell the ranks of civil servants. That said, one cannot deny the government’s economic record. ND’s prudent fiscal policy has enabled Greece to catch up with its EU partners. The administration launched reforms aimed at boosting private investment while at the same time reducing unemployment. Greece’s current 4.1 percent growth rate is the highest in the EU. And growth is being fed mainly by private investments and exports, not just public works. ND slashed some taxes too. Cooperation with Russia put Greece on the global energy map, while social welfare policy raised the incomes of the less prosperous. The ND government may not have been a great government. It may not have vindicated the hopes of its voters. But it is a good and honest government that bears no relation to the corrupt PASOK administration of 2000-2004. That’s all in the past, one might say, whereas elections are about the future. But the edifices of the future have their foundations in the past. History has always been the most instructive science.
