A crucial vote for the country
Parliament’s upcoming vote on changes to the social security system will be crucial, mostly because it involves significant reforms that both the last PASOK government under Costas Simitis and the former New Democracy administration under Costas Karamanlis had shied away from. Secondly, the reform plan will prove pivotal because it is one of the most important conditions outlined by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund as part of the terms of the bailout agreement, without which Greece would have had to declare bankruptcy. ND has already decided that it will not support the reform plan and it would be a fatal mistake if independent MPs such as Dora Bakoyannis, who left the conservative fold because she believed their policy to be too populist, were to follow suit. This is no time for each individual politician to measure the cost of every unpleasant decision down to the last minuscule detail. This is a time for all politicians to behave responsibly and to put the interests of their careers and of their party aside and do what is right for the country.
