Shunning the real hard stuff
The recent plethora of newspaper interviews given by ministers of the conservative New Democracy government – in fact ministers who are in charge of some sectors that are in serious trouble – does no real service to the administration of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis. No amount of efforts to cultivate public relations can make up for the lingering shortcomings of the governing apparatus. Quite the opposite is in fact the case. We have grown used to the sight of career politicians wasting precious time furthering their careers by investing in promotional hype and spin, to the detriment of the tasks and responsibilities that they have been appointed to take on. But this behavior is still a major turnoff and source of bitter frustration to the voters of this country. Even more frustrating is the sight of the same government ministers speaking about their fields of responsibility as if they were well-trained experts and not as the mere managers of sorely problematic sectors.
