Editorial: A season of political party conventions

By coincidence, the three largest political parties that hope to come to power (either single-party rule or in a prospective coalition) have conducted or are organising their conventions amidst a combination of global public health, war, energy, inflationary, and economic crises.

Main opposition SYRIZA's convention ended yesterday. It will be followed by ruling New Democracy's (6-8 May) and that of centre-left KINAL, or Movement for Change, (20-22 May), whose new leader Nikos Androulakis (elected in December by the party base) is restructuring and aims for a rebirth of the party.

One might have characterised this as a propitious confluence of events and have expected of parties that have governed in the past to systematically and in an organised fashion carefully examine the multiple crises of our times.

One would expect them to engage in an in-depth analysis of the enormous changes wrought by these crises and to take a stand by tabling proposals and opting for truly national choices that are capable of mobilising the country and its people.

Understandably, due to extraordinary conditions expectations run high, especially since we are at the start of a political cycle leading to the next general election.

Yet, despite the demands of the times, SYRIZA's convention did not veer away from the beaten path. It was dominated by the usual promises of handouts and was not able to substantially address the difficult combination of crises. Instead, it attempted simply to rally the party base ahead of the next elections.

Pledges of handouts and appointments to civil service jobs, such as those included in SYRIZA's 2014 "Thessaloniki Programme", were merged with some analysis of the current complex and demanding period.

The solutions,...