Dear friends, good day to you all!
The tragic murder of Vagia Nestora in Thessaloniki, following the coordinated attacks on the homes of New Democracy officials, serves as a reminder that political violence is never “symbolic.” It is never “intervention.” It is never “activism.” Once violence is chosen as a means of political expression, the next step may be bloodshed. And this time, it was.
The state’s primary duty is self-evident: to identify the perpetrators, uncover any masterminds, and bring them all to justice. In a well-governed democracy, there are no political alibis for terrorism, nor ideological mitigating factors for murder.
However, there is a second task, equally critical: to ensure that this tragedy does not become the starting point for a new cycle of political division.
Greece has paid a very heavy price during periods when political confrontation crossed the boundaries of democratic debate and turned into the moral annihilation of the opponent.
When insults replaced arguments, when tolerance toward “minor” offenses was regarded as a sign of political sensitivity, and when some rushed to find excuses instead of unequivocally condemning violence. History has shown that such concessions do not defuse tension. They legitimize it.
Certainly, the government has every reason to highlight the gravity of the attack. It must, however, resist the temptation to generalize or exploit a tragedy for partisan gain.
Similarly, it is not enough for the opposition to condemn terrorism with mere formal statements. It must actively reject any culture of tolerance toward practices that, no matter how “low-intensity” they may appear, foster the notion that violence can be a form of political action.
The truth is that responsibility neither begins nor ends with the current situation. For years, successive governments have treated with unjustifiable leniency phenomena that were presented as “interventions,” “dynamic protests,” or “activism.” Whenever violence took on an ideological guise, some were quick to downplay it. Until, at some point, reality proved harsher than words.
That is why the greatest challenge today is not merely the investigation of a heinous criminal act. It is to ensure that public life is not poisoned again by the mistrust, polarization, and toxicity for which the country paid such a heavy price during the years of the crisis.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis spoke of the need to build “a bulwark of maturity and determination.” It is a phrase that deserves to transcend the boundaries of any given government. This bulwark cannot be partisan. It must be democratic. It must be built by all political parties, institutions, the media, and, above all, society itself.
Because terrorism tests democracy with its bombs. Toxicity, however, undermines it far more insidiously: by turning political opponents into enemies and dissent into a pretext for hatred. It poisons trust, stirs up passions, turns disagreement into hatred, and transforms democratic debate into a climate of civil war.
Greece has already walked this path.