Paschos Mandravelis

We all know that the very last article (number 120) of the Greek Constitution states that “observance of the Constitution is entrusted to the patriotism of the Greeks.” Is there maybe some hidden provision that adds that “it is also left to the kindness of those in power”?

“OK – ‘Nikos Androulakis is inadequate, Alexis Tsipras is outdated, Maria Karystianou is pro-Russian,' and as for Sokratis Famellos and Gabriel Sakellaridis, there is nothing even worth discussing. What remains, then? Kyriakos Mitsotakis. “There is no alternative” (TINA), as Margaret Thatcher used to say.

We have said many times that corruption is inherent in human affairs. It is found even in divine matters, if we consider that one of Jesus' 12 disciples was bribed to betray him. So, if 8% of the holiest group in Christian history – the Apostles – turned out to be corrupt, what should we expect from the Kifissia Building Authority?

PASOK has become something like a poodle: small and, as a result, insecure. It keeps barking constantly – not only at the government, which is, after all, part of its role – but also at the media and opinion polls.

There's no arguing that any ordinary citizen would be embarrassed about being called into a police station or summoned by a prosecutor. This is doubly so for public figures, who pay the price of the publicity they worked so hard to acquire by being “hung out to dry,” as many government officials like to say. Life is funny that way, though, so even lawmakers may be summoned by a prosecutor to explain their involvement in a case that is under investigation. Of course, this is not the case for ministers. When it comes to ministers, the government majority in Parliament will simply use Article 86 of the Greek Constitution to protect them from even the simplest questions that may be asked by judicial officials. This is one of the articles the government says it wants to change, possibly because it doesn't want the temptation of invoking it all the time.

There is a cartoon by Kostas Mitropoulos showing two people standing in front of a newsstand. One says, “Ah, it smells like spring…” The other, looking at the newspapers announcing new benefits, replies, “It smells like elections…”

There's a lot happening on Greece's political stage right now, and it's all getting its fair share of commentary. We're witnessing the second coming of Alexis Tsipras, Kyriakos Mitsotakis' resilience, Nikos Androulakis' weakness and all the departures from Maria Karystianou's new party.

For the legendary Liverpool manager Bill Shankly, “Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that.” There is some truth to this, if one considers that football's magic captivates more people than the miracle of life itself; they feel a greater sense of awe watching a goal than witnessing thousands of deaths on the battlefield. This is why dictators of all stripes have used football as the opium of their people.

Now that the belief that fires are started to create wind farms is dying out, the next conspiracy theory will emerge that wind turbines start fires. A series of failures by the private sector and omissions by the public sector will ignite the movement of “No wind farms in seas and mountains.”

Fifteen years ago, in June 2011, the authors of the book “Below Zero. Four Comments on the Crisis” (Takis Theodoropoulos, Petros Markaris, Vassilis Papavassiliou and myself) had invited Stefanos Manos to speak in the town of Katerini about it. However, there had been a mix-up with another book on the Greek debt crisis that we were going to present together, and Manos came prepared for a different book than the one he was going to present.