Elections 2007

The political scene leaves me cold and slightly indifferent. That is known to people that know me well enough. What troubles me, is the way people elect their representatives a.k.a. future leaders every 4 or less years.

This year’s elections left a blue taste in the mouths of PASOK voters, who watched as their party concentrated the smallest percentage of all time. Well, they shouldn’t be surprised: In fact, you could have made a fortune by betting to New Democracy’s win. What were the odds? Fires of biblical proportions ravaged about 70% of Greece, the economy sucks, education sucks, unemployment sucks and reigns, so what held PASOK from winning?

In my eyes, it was the profile of their presidents: Kostas Karamanlis for N.D. VS George Papandreou for PASOK. The first is your typical, middle-aged Greek: Fat, average looking, slightly “elsewhere”, joking, eating a lot, drinking, occasionally cursing, talks loudly, full of temperament and speaks with popular terms to the people. Take Papandreou now: Tall, thin, raised in Sweden and USA, cultivated, calm, a gadget fan, athletic, speaks English with nearly perfect accent, he looks more like some British guy some people sent here to conquer us from within.

I cannot forget the time when Papandreou was elected president of PASOK. There was a time before that, that he was praised as a holly man, due to his father’s heritage: Andreas Papandreou was one of the most gifted folk seducers and a cunning politician, influencing more than two generations during his lifetime. As soon as George was elected, the next day there is a fantastically disastrous video, where George is jogging along with some friends. The imagery is identical to the president of the US, jogging, with his bodyguards following him. The only thing missing was a sniper, looking out for dangers afar… Showing that video to the Greek audience, a folk who like the US policy as much as the USA love Fidel Castro, well, that was a bad idea. Or a clever move. Depends, on who brought that video to the TV station.

Then, there is the aspect of popular TV shows, stand-up comedies, and newspaper caricatures: MitsiXosta, a TV show where the host imitates various celebrities and politicians, by that time (2004) was presenting Papandreou sitting in an oval office, with the US banner on the background, he was confusing Greek with English words, and he frequently asked for his mom’s permission or guidance in order to continue. Karamanlis was presented as a constantly hungry guy, halfwity, some may say he looked like a loveable loser. Guess what most Greeks are… And Kostas Karatzaferis, president of the radical Right party LAOS, won popularity points due to the fact that, A: MitsiXosta made him known to the public, and B: He was shown as a guy with sharp cleverness and witty humor. His party entered the parliament in the 2007 elections…

So, to me, elections are another clever game played by and through the media. It is not accidental, that during the night that PASOK lost once more the elections, a member of the party, Evangelos Venizelos, announced his nomination for president in Papandreou’s place. Venizelos, a huge, fat, loudmouth guy, seems ideal to face Karamanlis in what will resemble a sumo fight rather than a political debate. And make Greek voters identify with him. It doesn’t matter if there are two voices and the one speaks right while the other speaks wrong. What matters is which one is heard louder…