A new party under Antonis Samaras?

It is a tactical and long-term strategic error for a former prime minister to create a new, inevitably small party simply because he wants to express the clarity of his views, and this not only concerns Antonis Samaras, who was recently expelled from the ruling conservatives for questioning the government's policies.

The same was true in the case of former premier and one-time PASOK leader George Papandreou, who, with the founding of the Movement of Democratic Socialists (KIDISO) 10 years ago, trapped himself in an unnecessary failed venture.

People who have led major political parties and have held the fate of the country in their hands do themselves an injustice when they slide into the realm of petty politics through moves that are almost mathematically doomed to failure. By becoming prime ministers they are part of Greece's political history and have secured the...