My dear friends, good day to you!
There are pre-election periods that begin with the calling of elections. And there are also those that begin much earlier, while everyone insists that… they have not begun. In the second case, it is clear, Greece finds itself today.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis has stated it repeatedly and in every possible way: the government will serve out its term.
At the same time, however, he is publishing the account of his seven-year governance, the government is submitting one bill after another with arrangements for debts and dues, the surplus has already set off toward the Thessaloniki International Fair for handouts, ministers and MPs are “crisscrossing” the country, New Democracy is preparing to announce new candidates and the opposition is competing in promises.
In other words, whether it wants to or not, the government has already put the country on an election track.
In the opposition, one party outdoes the other in handouts. Nikos Androulakis promises free transport on public transportation for young people up to 24 years old, Alexis Tsipras extends the promise to everyone, while the government denounces “handout politics”, at the same time that it is preparing its own basket of announcements for the Thessaloniki International Fair.
And while the vice president of the government assures that “we will not enter a competition of handout politics” and repeats that the elections will take place on time, everyone is moving as if they are already in the final stretch toward the ballot box.
The question now is not whether early elections will be held. When the entire political system is functioning in pre-election mode, could it be that in the end the only one that does not believe in the narrative about completing the four-year term is... the government itself?
A prime minister who publishes a seven-year account, presents the commitments that were implemented and prepares the narrative of the next period hardly convinces anyone that he has not begun counting down to the ballot box. Even if the ballot box is set up months later.
The issue, of course, is not whether the elections are held in October, in December or in the spring of 2027. The issue is that governance seems to have yielded its place to pre-election preparation.
Instead of the government throwing itself fully into the work, so that high prices can be addressed, the resources of the Recovery Fund can be absorbed in time and chronic dysfunctions of the state can be corrected, it is consumed by tours, presentations of its work and communication management.
In the ministries, the familiar logic of pre-election periods is increasingly prevailing: “pencils down.” Everyone is thinking about the next ballot box and very few about the next reform.
They were not elected, however, to conduct a pre-election campaign for months. They were elected to govern.
Were the problems of everyday life addressed? Were high prices and profiteering substantially curbed? Did access to housing for young people become easier? Was bureaucracy reduced? Has anyone tried to determine how much time even today an apparently simple property transfer requires? Was the delivery of Justice truly accelerated?
These are – among many others - the questions that concern citizens.
If, in the end, the government considers political stability to be its great advantage, then it must behave accordingly.
Stability is not compatible with the constant “water torture” surrounding the timing of the elections.
If the decisions have been made, let it be said clearly. If not, then let them govern until the last day of their term, instead of keeping a country in permanent pre-election waiting.
We have democracy and the elections, when they take place, will last one day. The abandonment of governance, however, can last for months. Especially if a second ballot is also set up. And that is the real problem.