Voters want to be free of blinders
It is most understandable that all of the country’s political parties will want to mobilize their supporters ahead of the European parliamentary elections in an attempt to polarize the political climate and maximize their share of the vote. However, the times when the vast majority of the voting public was staunchly polarized have long been consigned to the trash can of history. Greece’s public opinion is far more mature these days and the populist tactics of even the recent past do not hold as much sway as they used to. Rather, such strategies seem to act as a deterrent for a crucial segment of the public, who prefer to vote without having to don partisan blinders. These are the people who expect to hear tangible – and implementable – proposals form the ruling New Democracy conservatives as well as the various opposition parties about how they plan to deal with the country’s burgeoning structural problems. Fanaticism and polarization undermine the stature of our political system, even if they do manage to gain a few votes.
