Fighting over domestic – not foreign – policy

It's a somewhat unusual yet positive development for the country: Despite the toxicity and the bitter clashes on almost every domestic policy issue one can think of, which will intensify as we get closer to the general elections in May, for the first time in many years there is broad consensus on the country's geopolitical orientation.

All three major parties have a broadly common foreign policy focus which they have put into practice during their terms in power.

The 1977 declaration of late conservative statesman Konstantinos Karamanlis that "we belong to the West" was essentially adopted by both socialist PASOK and leftist SYRIZA as soon as they came to power and were forced to deal with the difficult reality.

In their early years, both parties on the center-left of the spectrum acted as representatives of a protest vote and wandered in different directions,...