So, with one stroke, Greece ended up with an administration-product of processes that transformed the Greek Constitution into a doormat and added shiploads of borrowed money on our backs lest our lenders lose their shirts (it is of course preferable for Greece to lose, aside from her own shirt, all the rest of her garments as far as our 'friends and allies' are concerned). Thus, Greek "democracy," already tottering, found itself launched out the window.
We are now called upon to vote for politicians the majority of whom openly sided with, or abetted, the austerity crucifixion of our country. Most of them, and especially those who belong to the "socialist" PASOK and the "conservative" New Democracy, have already demonstrated their ilk. Normally, and in view of the disaster that has shrouded Greece in the last two years, all of those who sided with the lenders must be voted out and send to pasture.
How about the smaller parties of the Right and the Left, all of them vehement opponents of the IMF/EU "memoranda" that have instituted misery and destruction as the measure of Greek "democracy?" It is obvious from public opinion research that all of them are gaining, sometimes with speed they could have never imagined only months ago. But do they offer a real alternative? Unfortunately, and while their language in the past two years sounded right in the ears of millions, their history, behavior and choices over time leave a lot to be desired, beginning with ideology, to name just one prominent element.
This election -- again, normally -- should be an opportunity to ask the obvious question: how inevitable was the resort to the IMF and the EU scalpers? Mr. Papandreou repeatedly claimed that this inevitability was unavoidable as he took the country straight over the cliff. His successor as PASOK party leader, Mr. Venizelos, now claims he was "against resorting to the IMF." He should go into the trouble then to explain why and outline the formula he had presumably in mind for saving Greece back then. If he fails to deliver a satisfactory answer, he, too, should be send packing. Mr. Venizelos is as responsible of the current situation as his predecessor, who is presently and prominently invisible, and all those from the "main opposition" who agreed to kowtow to the "memoranda." Such was the "success" of these geniuses that the EU itself still estimates that Greece's debt-to-GDP ratio could still be 160% by 2020.
Having said that, we should also not forget that it was the Greek voting public, the same that has been decimated by austerity, who voted all the current crop of politicians in and, thus, allowed them to hold the levers of power and create, promote, and strengthen the state of corruption which has brought the collapse. Would this same voting public be sane enough, and outraged enough, this time around to clear the decks and eject "the memorandum crop of leaders" straight into political and moral oblivion?
Greek voters must be absolutely certain of the irreversible validity of at least one truth: Mr. Papandreou and the entire bevy of those who cast parliamentary ballots as "rescuers" did not save Greece but, rather, made certain that Hellas will remain shackled with debt and austerity chains for decades to come. They should also never forget that the prospect of a "disorderly default," instead of abating, has drawn closer exactly because of the IMF/EU "rescue" bringing us to the bottom of the pit. These two truths taken together should be enough to annihilate 2/3 of the present political lineup.
May 6 should be a day of voters casting their ballot after carefully weighing the alternatives. Even then, the circumstances, and the voting behavior of Greeks, are such that the election will most likely produce yet another impasse. In order to avoid this impasse, we should avert our eyes from the micro-politicking of the bankrupt "mothers and fathers of the nation" and remember that it is a question of life and death to create the conditions for the emergence of a different leadership group.
Without it, and with the same demolition crew in power yet again, Hellas will have no choice but crash straight into the rocks for the last time.