Editorial: Cynicism

Let us accept that the third bailout memorandum that was signed by the SYRIZA-led government made the ruling party trample over many of its principles.

If SYRIZA has lost the last shred of its much-touted left-wing moral advantage, however, it is because it trampled over principles that nobody asked it to violate.

Who forced the ruling party four years ago to govern in a coalition with a nationalist right-wing party?

Who is forcing SYRIZA today to place on its European Parliament ticket a person whose name is inextricably tied with vested interests and state-funded entrepreneurship?

Those responsible for these choices are members of the ruling party and its leadership, a leadership which day and night denounced the supposed “old political system”. Today, it makes that system look like a society of angels, which at least tried to keep up appearances.

Which other party would even consider putting such a business name on its electoral ticket?

SYRIZA did not violate only its own principles or those of the left.

It overturned a custom that individuals from such high levels of the business class who have business dealings with the state do not involve themselves actively in politics.

Here, it is not the ruling party’s customary hypocrisy and cynicism that scare one once again. It is the path toward the unknown that is opening for the first time.