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 episodes have made it crystal clear we lack even a rudimentary awareness of the job we vote them in to do.
It’s like we’re deciding on a panel to preside over a gossip show on TV. To the best of my knowledge, it’s only in Greece that candidates are chosen not in terms of political competence or effective representation, but on the basis of their TV viewing figures. And low ones, at that, on occasions.
It’s just that the European elections are no laughing matter. In fact, no election held in a democracy can ever be a joke.
So it’s unthinkable that we should be approaching the June elections without anyone having said a single thing about what they’re about: which is Europe.
I mean, I have to ask: Where are the major European issues that should concern us, even divide us? Where are the roadmaps to the future? Nowhere in sight. And on no one’s lips.
Although some minds never change. Only a SYRIZA candidate could invite the European Public Prosecutor to bring down the government. I mean, Polakis has more or less patented that sort of politics as a European joke.
But that’s how we can have elections about Europe without Europe. More saliva has been spilled on the celebrities and panelists than on the actual issues of a European Union that defines our lives.
Of course, the polls indicate unchanging allegiances and minor fluctuations at most, which does not predispose anyone to launch a full-on assault.
The government faces “discontent” (they say) and the others “indifference”. Now that’s a real non-revelation. It’s just that no one knows how all this will be reflected (if it is at all) in an election result.
What is clear, at least, is that the predictions of looming destabilization do not seem to be coming to pass.
And that’s a win. Stability is always a key concern in a democracy. Anyone who wants it otherwise will have the chance to pursue instability in some future election.
Until then, the country has pressing problems to deal with and a government strong enough to cope with them.
In fact, if we talked more about Europe and less about the various colorful candidates, we could even provide some content for elections that have come across thus far as largely pointless and without meaning.
