Far too much for one man
The government of Costas Karamanlis is displaying some serious signs of dysfunction in three crucial sectors. The first of these, and one which touches the public more directly, is public order and the government’s handling of illegal immigration which is fast becoming a serious threat to Greece. The second area is the government’s failure to communicate with the people, to get its message across in a clear and succinct manner and to ensure a healthy political discourse. The third is its inability to reorganize and modernize the state machine and the interminable bureaucracy. Where the paradox of this quandary lies is in the fact that all three sectors are the responsibility of a single minister, though it is obvious that, practically speaking, no one person should be required to shoulder such a heavy burden. The self-sacrifice with which Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos has applied himself to this Sisyphean task is truly remarkable, but it is about time that his burden was shared among other, new members of the government so that he can focus all his efforts on just one area. It is obvious from everything we see that the current model is just not working.
