Tag: Stomach

Anyone involved in politics needs to have a strong stomach and plenty of patience. Up until very recently, members of the Athenian elite were often heard complaining about New Democracy’s leader: “Kyriakos [Mitsotakis] doesn’t have what it takes. He must say more populist things, tell a few lies, it’s not that bad.” The very same people are now loudly complaining: “This isn’t right. He’s being too populist on Skopje. He’s gone too far.” Those who wanted the leader of the main opposition to be more like the late PASOK prime minister Andreas Papandreou and less of a “Mitsotakis” are now displeased. However, “politics is the art of the attainable,” as late premier Constantine Karamanlis used to say. If Mitsotakis had supported the deal with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, it is certain that ND would have tanked in the polls, and a new nationalistic and fully anti-European party would have been created to its right whose popularity would probably skyrocket in the next election. If the electoral system were to change to proportional representation, the Greek political system would be very fragmented and the extreme right would secure an influential role. On the other hand, politics is like cooking. It’s an art where the exact quantities are important to produce a successful recipe.