slenderbeak: Greek General Election 7th July 2019

slenderbeak: Greek General Election 7th July 2019: I was here for the 2015 General Election. What a different atmosphere this time. My Greek friends will mainly vote Syriza. They say that t...

Greek General Election 7th July 2019

I was here for the 2015 General Election. What a different atmosphere this time.
My Greek friends will mainly vote Syriza. They say that the choice is between Syriza and New Democracy and that if they voted for any smaller party or coalition of parties such as Varoufakis's MeRA25, they would certainly be allowing the right wing New Democracy to win. I can see their logic. It's not so far removed from the way UK voters behave. And, they say, four years is not long enough to judge the neo-liberal policies of Alexis Tsipras.

Of course, Tsipras was never a revolutionary socialist anymore than Jeremy Corbyn is, so we shouldn't expect anything different from them. According to Zoe Konstantopoulou (former Greek Parliament Speaker and Syriza), Tsipras only lasted seventeen hours in negotiations with the EU over the imposition of austerity measures on the Greek people. That pales into insignificance when you compare it to the physical torture endured by people like her father during the 1967 dictatorship. Fair point.

So, what is to be done? Mitsotakis of New Democracy wants to win an absolute majority so he can do whatever he wants but if they get it I suspect the Greek voters will live to regret the result. He has also avoided public debate with Tsipras. Uhm! Now who does that remind me of? If you scrutinize the neo-liberal agendas of western democracies they don't differ so much.

Many people are afraid to vote for who they really think will bring profound change, not only for their country but the world because alternative parties are too small and so the carousel spins round once again. It takes conviction to branch out from the stale, established system by getting off that horse and sticking to our principles. But If we don't, we will continue to get more of the same, whether it's New Democracy or Syriza, Tory or Labour. I feel I owe my children better than that.