Enforcing the law, without exception
One of the biggest problems plaguing Greek society is a failure to implement the law. The government recently made public its decision to clamp down on the illegal fuel trade. That’s all good. But it means little until the authorities finally manage to arrest the owner of some fuel-tampering factory or a big fuel smuggler. If the government campaign is reduced to arresting a gas station owner or a tanker truck driver, it will be very hard to avoid charges of hypocrisy. If you can’t enforce a law, it’s better not to introduce it at all. Greeks will only truly respect the law when the state enforces the law for everyone, without exceptions – that is, when the big businessman who has failed to pay his IKA contributions receives the same fine as the average person; when a politician sees his illegal property knocked down; when the Markopoulo quarries are shut down. The citizen will respect the state only when the state has proved to respect itself and everyone else.
