Facing two choices

By Alexis Papachelas

There are plenty of people who voted the current coalition government into power two years ago that feel they are being given no choice but to choose the opposition SYRIZA party in the next general election and resent it. They are angered by a number of political decisions made by the government following the cabinet reshuffle and especially by the removal of certain politicians who got things done and defended their choices openly. Even before the reshuffle, these voters were angry at decisions that showed the political system is incapable of changing its tune regardless of the mess it has made of the country.

These voters constitute the backbone of what used to be the middle class in Greece and it is they who have paid one of the highest prices for the crisis. They have been bled dry by taxation and driven to near-insanity by ludicrous measures such as allowing any tax official to freeze their bank accounts at the slightest hint of a misdeed. Nevertheless, they did not fall for the “How much worse could it be with SYRIZA?” argument. They voted for New Democracy and to a lesser extent PASOK and Democratic Left because they believed that was the way to keep the country standing. And the truth is that the country did survive and it produced a rare group of ministers who did their jobs without qualms.

The prime minister earned the support of people who would never have considered voting for him in the past. He was seen as a leader who could be relied on, who would get the country to the other side of the river. All of a sudden, however, two-thirds of the way across and with the waters calmer, they feel that something has gone terribly wrong. Someone has sowed panic, the crew is starting to argue, the compass is spinning, and...