I have been thinking and rethinking this article for quit some time now. I pry everything logically, morally, technically, emotionally and ideologically. This is not an easy choice at this time.
Being a man who politically began from the left, now considers himself to belong to the anti-authoritarian ideological area and lives permanently abroad, things should be simple - vote for no one - resist on the streets.
The possible entry of the fascist Golden Dawn in the Greek parliament though, puzzled me. It made me think about whether we should all vote to reduce the percentage of the Nazis, or whether we should let them embarrass us even more till we learn our lesson. But I fear that some never will...
But let's say that somebody would put a gun on my forehead and would ask me to choose somebody to vote for, which party would that be? Let's start with the easy ones: The once upon a time Panhellenic Socialist Party PASOK brought Greece into bankruptcy, put loan obligations to the country till 2030, put Greece in the memorandum, from which some of its members gained a lot of money on the backs of the Greek people. Now with its"new" leader Evangelos Venizelos that looks like Benny Hill PASOK serves the same policy: head bowed to the banks and the bosses, oppressing the population. In short it is the most complex and corrupt party in the country and wants to convince us it is fighting for our own good. Rejected.
Second easy one is the grandson of writer Penelope Delta, the successor of the man who was called as..."national capital" Kostas Karamanlis of Conservative New Democracy party. Antonis Samaras put all his voters to work in the new Acropolis museum, when he was a minister in 2008, he was screaming against the memorandum in 2010. He then through out Dora Bakoyannis from the New Democracy conservative party, because she supported the memorandum - a policy that later on Samaras supported himself as well. Actually, now that they agree in everything why doesn't he take her back? In short, we are talking about the political party that brought us to the brink in 2009, changed its policies suddenly in 2011, and tries to justify the unjustifiable; with a very old-style party leader, who insults the smaller right wing parties, forgetting that his own party in the 90s, called "Political Spring" represented literally the same thing as they do now. Rejected.
Bakoyannis as we already said supports the memorandum policies, and let's not forget she is the daughter of Konstantinos Mitsotakis, so she knows very well what corruption is ... I live and breathe for when I will be listening to her statements when she hasn't made it into the parliament! Rejected. Stefanos Manos is a little more decent, and took the right position on the issue of ID cards a few years ago. Let's not forget though that he raised the gasoline prices 50 Drachmas up in 1 night when he was Greek finance minister in the early 90s. Do not forget also that he wanted military intervention in December 2008 riots... Rejected.
George "Karatzaführer" lost all his prestige in the society with his participation in Lucas Papademos government, and now everybody is convinced that he has absolutely no firm policy position about anything. I remember I was in Chalkida a few weeks ago and were handed out leaflets by his supporters that read on one page: "George Karatzaferis changed positions when it was needed" and in the next page it read: "We didn't change our ideas" or something like that anyway! It's the time that his far-right, populist, TV-party comes to an end by not entering the House. Rejected.
For the befuddled Nazi party, Golden Dawn, I don't have much to say. Only the fact that they believe they are firstly Greek and then people shows their stupidity. I saw a photo the other day on Facebook that read: "Pure nations exist only in non-pure minds." I dedicate it to them. And I tell them that when we will have a real-impartial police force, they will all end up in jail, because they are common criminals. Rejected.
Perhaps the only positive development on the right wing is the emergence of Panos Kammenos. Although a little slimy, he looks decent and I think if I was right wing I would for him, in order to keep my dignity. But I'm not, and also I do not see him having any proposals. So: Rejected.
In the left now: I do not know if anyone can follow the position of Coalition of the left (SYRIZA). I can not understand how they believe that Greece should stay in the European Union since it is just the expansion of Germany during the last few years. I do not know why they say they want to stay in the Euro either, although to be honest I do not believe them when they say so. I see opportunism in their party with no standard policies. Lately, they try to show a more mild and posh face in order not to lose any voters to Fotis Kouvelis' Democratic Left party. Rejected.
Which brings us to Democratic Left, where Kouvelis uses his status to convince large parts of the population to support him, and not only traditionally left voters, but nobody believes that he will not unite with PASOK after the elections . Also his idea of a gradual disengagement from the memorandum scares me! We should disengage immediately! Rejected.
Coming to the honored Communist Party. My grandfather who was for years a member of the party used to tell me: "I do not want you to be a communist, I want you to become a democrat", and this is one of my main problems with the CPG (Communist Party of Greece). Having beaten up by a member of their youth organisation (he hit me with a helmet on the head) during my University years in 2003, I know that when "the party" has great power and uses it, you shouldn't be in their way, cause they will smash you ... As for its policies, it didn't vote against the party funds new laws, which gives rediculous amounts of money to the Parliamentary parties. Also in 2011 the head of the party Aleka Papariga said that leaving the Euro would be a disaster, even though they are against the European Union! Finally I must say that Stalinism and the international isolation that the Communist Party professes do not express me. Rejected.
The ANT.AR.SY.A. formation I look at with more sympathy, as they have the most radical views in comparison to all the left parties. But the truth is that sometimes the behaviour of its members resemble the bullying of the Communist Party - especially where they have the power, as they do at the student unions of the Polytechnic Schools in Athens. It has almost never been easy to have a dialogue with someone from EAAK (their student union organisation) as they are always ready for a fight! Rejected.
Finally I would like to vote for Ecologists Greens, since they would probably bring new and innovative proposals in parliament and perhaps they would push the society towards a new direction, after the fairy tales we heard from George Papandreou "Green development" before the last elections in 2009. But my fear is that they would cooperate with PASOK and New Democracy after the elections. Rejected.
To be honest I do not know much about the other parties. I've heard good things about the "Dimiourgia Ksana" (Creation Again) party and I was glad that the Marxist Leninist Communist Party of Greece and the Communist party of Greece - Marxist Leninist finally united! But for all the rest I should give my apologies, since I have not followed them properly.
In conclusion, I am going back to Greece for the elections, but I am not sure whether I will vote or not. But if I do, it will be something between ANT.AR.SY.A. and the Greens in order to help them enter the parliament, as they need 3% of the vote to get in. The other option would we to vote for SYRIZA if I felt that I want to my vote to be added to a high left wing percentage that could shake the things a little bit. I reject all 3 above formations but there is nothing else out there for me to vote for.
Of course I must say that I find it totally ridiculous that the left is not united before the elections. It is quite a disappointing fact and shows that CPG, SYRIZA and Democratic Left have no sense of the position the country is in at the moment. If they decided to unite, I WOULD DEFINITELY VOTE THEM, EVEN IF IT WAS FOR THIS TIME ONLY! But everybody wants to keep their little shops unfortunately and do not want to take responsibilities ...
For everyone else who wants to definitely vote I propose the following:
- Immerse the Golden Dawn, do not legalize them and give them power
- Push down from their thrown PASOK and New Democracy. They have devastated the country and do not deserve your vote
- If you give right-wing a vote then do so for Kammenos as he is the only decent one
- For all others vote left to give a message of resistance
Anyway my friends the day after the elections will mark the beginning of new social struggles, and we, the people will be in the spotlight. WE must take matters into our own hands and to resist against the degradation of our population. No rulling or no co-ruling party will get us out of the swamp by itself/themselves ... Elections are not the end but only the beginning. So let's have a good beginning then.
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