Laziness, conservatism and inertia

For lazy people, inertia is paradise. Antonis Samaras, the former conservative prime minister, is not lazy. His strenuous but ultimately unfruitful effort to pull Greece out of the crisis between 2012 and 2015 is proof of that. Moreover, during his tenure as prime minister, despite the economic crisis, there was some diplomatic movement in Greek-Turkish relations. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis rightly pointed out that Samaras had met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and that during the Samaras administration, with Evangelos Venizelos as foreign minister, exploratory talks were held (17.10.2024).

To be sure, at the time, the ever-active Venizelos served as both deputy prime minister and foreign minister. He had deep knowledge of the country's international position, its opportunities and limitations, and has a rich body of written work on the subject - unlike...