I haven't followed the French election campaign as closely as I wanted,  unfortunately. Following the political situation in Greece leaves me unable to get into details on any other issue. From the little I have seen, the deeply conservative European Union (EU) might have a chance to start changing if and only if French President Nicolas Sarkozy would step down come April 29th. 

                 Sarkozy played a very important role in bringing Europe through the mire it's in now. Since the beginning of his term he was always travelling all over the world, as if it was a lot easier for him to pretend solving everybody else's problems rather than dealing with his own country's. Marrying Carla Bruni was his only attempt to remain popular in France.  

                Despite his new marriage for the sake of popularity, he then fell in love, politically this time, with Germany. This alliance has suffocated relationships with the rest of the EU countries. It is not a coincidence that the social destruction and economic crisis of the P.I.I.G.S. (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and of course Spain) came partly due to how the 2 biggest Eurozone economies dealt with them: Domination, Insolence, Inexperience, Greed, Shortsightedness (D.I.I.G.S). The conservative European countries decided to support the banking system by providing it with tax payer money, instead of deciding to support its people. The puppets of the markets did a great job in reducing the living standards of their population. Sarko might say during his campaign that he saved the Euro, but in reality his leadership, alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel's, is to blame for many of the symptoms of Europe's crisis. 

                     On the internal front, the French economy is in its worst condition since World War II; unemployment and unhappiness rising every day like the sun in the done in the South of the country. Problems have only grown bigger since 2007. Pensions and working conditions have worsened in the last five years while prices are only going up. I struggle to recall any major issue or reform that Sarko has implemented in France which has changed the life of the people towards betterment. Without investigative research I struggle to find even one memory of a "unique", i.e. "new" proposal from a person that the media refer to as "highly intelligent". 

                  On the other hand, the Socialist Presidential candidate Francois Hollande says he belongs to the Left and that he wants to bring back social justice. If I compare him with other "Socialist" leaders in European countries, of the not so long ago past, (Tony Blair in the UK, Jose Luis Zapatero in Spain, or George Papandreou in Greece) it's unlikely he will do much. He just uses a rhetoric that the people like to hear, in comparison to the arrogance of Sarkozy. 

                   Hollande says he wants more just tax laws and a reform of the banking system. Surely we have heard this before from other leaders, but he gets a thumbs up from me since Merkel, as well as the bankers do not like him at all... 

                    The fact is, that I don't see how, if Hollande wins the French second round,  this can change huge issues like the EU bureaucracy, the one-way street of "Merkozy" and European Central Bank (ECB) in the economy, all by himself in a Europe without any allies.  Further, I cannot foresee what route he could possibly take to fight so many growing internal issues: unemployment, poverty, credit rating problems, immigration and crime. What are his goals, what are his policies, what is his ideology, his plan for the future? 

                    Lastly the left wing candidate Melenchon looks like he can bring some sort of hope. He believes in a different approach to resolve the issues that concern the French people, as well as a different approach to Europe. He supported the pensions two years ago, and left the Socialist party a few years earlier as he understood its political contradictions. Only yesterday (Thursday night in Paris) he said: "We will tell all those who are used to tightening their belt [...] we will tell them it is useless, because our Greek brothers did tighten their belts. They sold everything and they lost everything. In the end, they did not get anything in return, absolutely nothing. We must resist!" 

                   I don't believe that Melenchon could get to the 2nd round next week, which means that his voters will then probably support Hollande, an "inevitable choice" for the French left wingers... Recent polls suggest that more than 80% of Melenchon supporters say they would vote for the Socialist candidate in Round 2. Of course Sarkozy would take the Far Right voters in the 2nd round as well, but I don't want to talk more about the xenophobic supporters in France in this article as I am wasting my time and energy on small minded people. 

                         My thought and proposal is for the French to vote for Melenchon in Round 1 this Sunday. If I was French this is what I would do. He could be the only factor that could change France for good. And even if he doesn't get elected, a very high percentage in the elections could be a message to all Europe that the Left is present in this crisis, ready to play a big role and resist neo-liberal ideology. As for the 2nd round... We shall see next week. 


 
        My family used to listen almost exclusively to George Dalaras. In the car, at parties, when friends visisted, or when we had people from abroad visiting and we wanted to show them a little piece of Greek culture. 

        I used to think that he was a great artist until I was 14-15 years old. I remember the last album that I liked was the one with the songs of Goran Bregovic. I was excited how the rhythm was going faster in the song: “Nyhta” (Night).

        After that I began to hate him. Partly in response initially to my family, where everyone always knew everything better than me, because I was the youngest. I remember we went to see him playing with the band called Pyx Lax, and I told my parents that I was coming along only to listen to Pyx Lax, a small band at the time! He wasn't that bad that night...

        The next year we went to see him again, played with the band called Kitrina Podilata (meaning Yellow Bikes). He wasn't good ... I remembered after the concert that we had seen him in the castle of Lefkada island once during the summer time, where again he wasn't good ... Well these 2 performances, as well my teenage age, the Bregovic songs that are the same in different languages, some things that comedian Tzimis Panousis said, and then I decided: Dalaras was finished for me. 

        Later in my life I realized why I dislike him till now. Dalaras is the symbol of everything bad in the modern Greek, after the Junta. The poor person who is now posh, but makes his money by singing revolutionary songs, betting on the memories of Greeks, the right-winger (at least life style-wise) with the left-wing past, the sold out person, etc. In general consider him a hypocrite.

       Moreover, I thought he was to blame for many problems of the Greek music. He has “stolen” the songs from every Greek artist. This pissed me off and still does! 

       I had decided not to pay ever for his concerts, albums or anything else that he was involved, and usually the shows I listen to on the radio do not play his songs, EVER! 

       Living abroad, purely by chance I found several non-Greeks who spoke to me about Dalaras. Turks, Yugoslavs (I still call them that, because that's how I was taught to call them) Israelis and Arabs. I always said: "He has an amazing voice, but I can't stand him!"

       And honestly I really couldn't bear to listen to him! The people who are listening to him fanatically are those who are leading Greece into destruction. The generation of the resistance in the Athens Polytechnic School against the Junta in 1973, the people who made a lot of money in the 1980's, who packed Athens, made illegal villas with swimming pools, inflated tax evasion, wanted to place their children in the public sector and were obsessed with getting them into University, voted PASOK (Papandreou's so called Socialists) and forgot where they were coming from. The only thing that this generations was left with was the voice of Dalaras. These people were listening to him and crying while they were drinking whiskey in very expensive bouzoukia nightclubs ...

       Now this generation votes for memorandums, and betrays her own struggles of the past as well as her children. The fact hat the wife of Dalaras became a politician with PASOK and voted for the measures and the cuts for the Greek people gave me another reason to hate him ...And once I learned about these free concerts that he is giving at the moment in Athens, I disagreed. 'He should be ashamed,' I said ' to play political songs about poverty, while his wife is killing people 2 years now by voting for the measures in the parliament."

        But seeing the picture in Ilion, really hurt my heart. And that weight made me write today. Because I still think about, 36 hours after I saw ayoghurt thrown at him while being on stage, and him not leaving. I was moved ...

        I felt like my father was being attacked, whom I criticise from morning till night - and those that are like him! And I wanted to defend him.

        That scene made me fed up and shocked me. The guy who went up on the stage wearing a helmet scared me. Dalaras did not leave even then, although he could be harmed. This picture reminded me of Christ in the Last Supper and later on the Calvary, although I hate all religions. I admired him.

         I don't disagree with the throwing yoghurts at politicians, businessmen who want workers to be slaves, journalists and publishers, who delibrately hide the truth. Quite the contrary, I would throw them a yoghurt myself if I had the chance.I also don't disagree with invading the parliament, throwing stones at the cops, the attack on Marfin Bank, the burning of the Christmas tree, throwing Molotov cocktails. In fact, I want us to take up arms and make a deep class, social and political revolution in Greece.

         But attacking an artist, I find it ugly, profoundly wrong and fascist. I doesn't express me and I would preferred if it had never happened. I realized that I started to like George (as Panousis calls him) by his reaction. Then I heard his interviews in the past few days, and I liked him even more, unlike his wife...

          I realized something else as well: these songs that Dalaras sings symbolize all the negatives that I mentioned above, but their meanings could also become a symbol for a new beginning for us, the younger generation, who have passion and soul and want to change the establishment in Greece.

          This does not mean that Dalaras did not screw up in the past in his life and career, and also it doesn't mean that I agree with him on the "inevitability" of the memorandum, etc. I'd prefer if he was along with people like Mikis Theodorakis and Alkinoos Ioannidisin street marches in the last 2 years, and not silent till today. Dalaras instead decided to organise these free concerts for the people and that's his choice.

          As it is my choice to disagree with them, and now that I changed my mind , it is to support them! I wish I was in Athens in one of his following concerts, to applaud him, defend him and congratulate him in person. For now, I look forward to Dalaras coming abroad, so that I can shake his hand, only for his reaction during his latest consert.

GreekRagnaroker

Postscript: I will continue to love and listen to Tzimis Panousis on the radio every day, because this is the Greece that expresses me more