Yannis Pretenteris

"above all else, democracy is a culture"

"We’ve made a democracy, now we have to make the democrats".

So, obviously, we don't expect Erdogan and Mitsotakis to settle accounts that go back multiple decades. But we do expect them to talk.

France holds its breath at the polls. And with France, the whole of Europe. In the second round of the parliamentary elections today, a broad (though far from cohesive) coalition of centrist, center-right and center-left forces plus “unbowed” and unbalanced voters on the Left will be attempting to prevent Le Pen’s rise to power. Will […]

The European elections are a painless process in themselves, but this time round they paved the way for an electoral contest that could seriously disrupt European democracy. President Macron has called a general election, the French are voting in the first round today, and the latest polls show a clear lead for the unrepentant far-right […]

No one has ever claimed or implied that Chairman Mao was centre-left. I suspect that if someone had told him so to his face, he wouldn’t have known what they were talking about. Not that this has prevented Greece’s centre-left from honouring him by confirming a famous saying of his in practice: “great disorder under […]

Only hypocrites or the deliberately obtuse can claim not to have understood what happened in the European elections. Because, one, there’s nothing complicated about it, and two, it’s clear as day. New Democracy didn’t bother actually talking to the voters, never so much as mentioned the things that concern them, so it’s no surprise many […]

If a visitor to Greece believed everything they heard recently on TV and in the coffee shops, they would have fallen from the clouds today. Because—amazingly—the citizens of Greece aren’t voting to bring down the government or raise up the opposition! No, we will have the self-same government and opposition tomorrow. Nor are they are […]

Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza is about to enter its ninth month. Russia’s war with Ukraine is now in its third year. And there are still no signs of normalization or appeasement on the horizon. Even worse, none of the warring parties appears to have a strategy for exiting crises which, with no prospect […]

if Europe is absent from people's lives; if it fails to address the cost of living crisis, immigration, unemployment; if it can't even forge a common position on the Middle East, then what exactly is it asking us to elect?

With just three weeks to go until the European elections, you might say we’re in the home straight. But to what? An electoral contest that has provoked nothing but yawns, and whose outcome everyone has rushed to predict with impatient over-confidence. The only event that actually looked and felt like an election rally was Edi […]

Needless to say, Mitsotakis’ visit to Ankara and his meeting with Erdoğan is not destined to change the course of history, just as it hasn’t stirred up waves of nationalist enthusiasm. But it is a necessary effort aimed at mutual understanding and coexistence. Made in the hopes that it will prove to be an honest […]

The trial of those charged in relation to the deadly Mati fire of 2018 has come to an end. But it has failed to satisfy the public. To the extent that a trial relating to a dreadful tragedy has descended into a trial of a trial. It seems the Association of Judges and Prosecutors was […]

For the first time since 1974, the judiciary has stepped in to ban a parliamentary party from taking part in an election. The ban applies to the Spartans party and didn’t come as a surprise—not even to those it angered. Because, for a decade now, and for the first time since the restoration of democracy […]

It’s strange. The world is in flames from the Middle East to Ukraine, and here in Europe we’ll be voting for the new European Parliament in a few weeks’ time, and yet we’re not really focused on the world or even on Europe. No, we’re only interested in the election candidates. And this when previous […]

We’re not in the home straight yet, but they’re not a dot on the horizon anymore. This June’s European elections will bring to a close the cycle of electoral showdowns that began a year ago, in May 2023. The polls record dissatisfaction with the New Democracy government, with the main chaffing point being the cost […]

A police force that does not protect those who seek its protection. An officer who doesn’t even watch over the pavement beside the police station he’s charged with guarding. A Rapid Response unit that isn’t rapid and whose responsiveness is questionable at best. Police officers who respond to a young girl’s cry for help in […]

The government’s “hell week” ended, as expected, with it comfortably winning a vote of confidence, in what turned out to be a far from edifying parliamentary showdown. In the meantime, of course, the government lost two ministers for reasons that are probably unrelated to the opposition’s lack of confidence. It is possible that their loss […]

Democratic societies face a choice. As far as dilemmas go, it’s extremely straightforward: they can either have confidence in the justice they provide, or they can’t. If a society trusts its justice system, it doesn’t cast doubts on it over trifles. It doesn’t restrict its purview, either, or casually level accusations about cover-ups or transactions. […]

Is the specter of the Far Right hanging over Greece? Well, no–what we need is a little perspective. The political wing of the Far Right may be making advances in parts of Europe (Portugal, France, the Netherlands, Spain or Italy). But in Greece it remains fragmented and disreputable, consigned to the lunatic fringe. It might […]