Will they rise to the occasion?
Let us pause for a moment and consider how Greece has come so close to bankruptcy and now needs to be chaperoned by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. The responsibility for this sorry state of affairs lies with the country’s politicians, to those who made a mess of our public finances, who behaved irresponsibly and arrogantly. Decades of kickbacks and cronyism, of hiring or promoting people in the public sector in return for votes or favors, of creating ridiculous administrative departments whose sole purpose is to provide a cushy job to a «friend,» of unchecked subsidies and supplements, together with unjustifiable wage hikes and perks have plunged the country into debt. What we need now is a new breed of politician who will take responsibility for unpleasant decisions and measures and who will stop making promises that he cannot or has no intention of keeping. It will also be interesting to see which of today’s politicians will meet these necessary criteria in this new era, at a point in Greece’s history when the politicians need to change in order to deal with the seriousness of the circumstances.
