It looks as though the ballot box isn’t made of transparent plexiglas after all, but of a mirror made by mercury which was gathered from the thermometers of every Greek citizen (a paraphrase of a line in Y. Ritsos poem “the mirror and you”). Shiny, sleek, barely distorting mirror. The shape of each Greek voter is imprinted in its shiny armour and after the sun sets and someone pushes the ‘print’ button, the effect can be nothing else but a sealed, accurate copy of the Greek society on a thick absorbent paper.
After the most crucial elections in the Greek nation’s history, above the white background of crisis –yes, the background of the opportunity for a new beginning is white– black scared figures were imprinted, the majority parties, totally unprepared to form a responsibility government. The 27% of Syriza ignores on purpose and is ignored, while the other 50% of New Democracy-Pasok-Democratic Left has irresponsibly decided by common consent to ignore the message for cooperation by the terrified public opinion and to staff the government, which in the end ‘represents’ the 30% of the Greek people.
In this entire climate of small-party tactics, image and power games in a country that collapses, dignity is not even a stain in the mirror, since the responsibility government, as it wishes to be called, while it has previously proved its ignorance in the European community -without even having read the institutional framework for its representation in the most crucial EU Summit- it finally puts on tomorrow the old Papoulias suit and goes to attend it in form of a letter, just as unprepared as the Greek people who two weeks ago resorted to the mirror. Simultaneously, ministers resign before they even take over their parts, whether because they realize their hard task or because they didn’t read the previous day the rules of the state governance game, and so did yesterday Dimitris Xatzisokratis, who is in charge of the economic policy of Democratic Left (because Kouvelis took his seat right out of his mouth?)
So it seems as though the most crucial elections haven’t come yet, since mind and ethics still don’t broadcast on the same frequency, so that they can be co-ordinated and shake the bridges to the past. Perhaps taking a step back from the mirror and looking around could be helpful.
(note: “The Wall Inside The Mirror” is the title of a poetry collection by Y. Ritsos)
