The demise of political culture

Evangelos Venizelos' farewell speech in Parliament earlier this week, which took place during a debate on a slew of new amendments to the country's criminal code and code of criminal procedure, was addressed to a half-empty auditorium. Those present consisted of ruling SYRIZA's MPs, a few members of legislative committees and just one lawmaker out of the 19 that represent Movement for Change (KINAL), the PASOK veteran's party before he was basically shunned by its leader, Fofi Gennimata.

Such, you may say, is the nature of politics. What should not be in the nature of politics, however, is such a blatant absence of any sense of political culture. Its place has been taken by concerns about political cost, a versatile and nebulous thing that can be assigned to a huge range of actions or reactions. The explanation for the half-empty auditorium - a result of opposition MPs...