It is a common truth that we Greeks have a tendency to despise the laws, and this defect has weighed on us since the times of classical antiquity! I have previously referred to the issue from this column, and I am coming back, because the same phenomenon has exceeded the limits of the legal order and threatens democracy itself.
The monitoring scandal of Nikos Androulakis, which could happen to any party leader, is at the stage of investigation, without affecting the main person responsible and with only the resignation of the responsible people of the Prime Minister's environment. Why was the president of PASOK being monitored? It remains unknown ... and citizens are slowly convinced that surveillance is normal! Is KYR wrong when, satirizing the government, he writes that, in addition to the personal doctor, he also established the personal telephone interceptor?
Greek constitutional university professors pointed out in their interviews and articles the danger of this scandal for our democracy. They believe that the responsibility belongs to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who should take it and resign. On the contrary, no action on the part of the government leads to an investigation, which will have substantial and immediate results for the suppression of this miserable phenomenon. Therefore the government is moving forward unscathed and optimistic in the next elections, and the investigations are marching into the future of the...invisible!
The unprecedented living conditions seem, paradoxically, to favor the rulers. The Greek people suffer every day. The pandemic, the weather phenomena and the economic collapse that follows, do not leave him room to deal with the surveillance scandal anymore, but also the evolution of dealing with such a serious event keeps him confused. This is exactly the "big issue" of our time, because if the people do not react with the democratic possibilities they have, democracy is in danger in our country.
In a letter addressed, during Roman rule in Greece, by the Roman bishop Menenius Apius to his friend the proconsul, in order to help him in his administrative duties, he points out the following:
"Fate has appointed us legislators of the world and the Greek individual despises the law. He does not admit any judgment other than his own... Greeks are rarely convinced "by those verbs". They are persuaded only by their own words and change the laws every little while according to the whims of the moment, or when they cannot change them, they treat them as hostile forces and then use either violence or deceit against them... To judge whether a law is just, they will measure it by the measure of their personal case, even when they are responsible to judge it in church or court... You wonder how the country of the greatest legislators has so little faith in the law." (From the voluminous and inspiring book of the unforgettable Konstantinos Tsatsos, "Aphorisms and Meditations", Oxyrhynchian Papyri, second series, Estias ed., 1970).
Let us hope, finally, that the mentioned "aphorism" will cease to apply in the progressive and democratic Greece of the 21stth century, and the necessary "meditation" will bring the desired result.
Prof. Stella Priovolou, president of the Body of Emeritus Professors of EKPA, dean of the Municipal People's University of Ag. Friday.
STEP of Sunday 20.11.2022
photo Clker Free Vector Images / https://pixabay.com
