Because suddenly everyone loves him Evangelo Venizelos; After spending a significant period of time in a state of a kind of political “exile”, moving away from the central political scene, but never, in fact, never ceasing to give a political “presence” with his intervention whenever events required it, the former deputy. The prime minister and former president of PASOK seems to be back in the spotlight. And in a way that seems paradoxical: to receive an “attack of recognition and friendship” from a wide political spectrum.

And just the fact that both prime ministers asked about Mr. Venizelos at TIF Kyriakos Mitsotakis as well as head of the official opposition party Alexis Tsipras this is political news. Perhaps the “friendly attack” on him is facilitated by the fact that his speeches, especially the last one on the issue of wiretapping, are of a constitutional nature rather than a purely political one. However, no one can argue that they do not have political weight and significance. This is also confirmed by the positions of Mr. Mitsotakis and Mr. Tsipras in TIF.

Mr. Mitsotakis, citing his disagreement with the former PASOK President in interpreting the constitution on surveillance of political figures, was quick to point out that “with Mr. more than what separates us.” He mentioned that he himself chose Mr. Venizelos to represent our country in the Committee of Wise Men of the Council of Europe, and immediately recalled that he was one of the ten politicians targeted by the SYRIZA government in the Novartis case.

“Bridges”

Considering that Mr. Venizelos was co-ruler with Mr. Antonis Samaras and was Deputy Prime Minister at the time, the Prime Minister’s decision to isolate the constitutional dispute through wiretapping was fairly obvious. Moreover, Mr. Mitsotakis has consistently sought to maintain “bridges” with the modernizing center where the former president of PASOK is based.

More surprising was the “friendship attack” of Mr. Alexis Tsipras. Approximately as “forgetting the past, faith in the future”, he meant “the ideological and political differences we have”, to which he added: “I think that the leadership role that he had in co-managing his party with New Democracy in the period 2012- 2015 was determined by the democratic world.” And there he drew a dividing line with today to state that: “Nevertheless, both as a politician and as a scientist, he has a bias that is especially important. We must take into account the positions and opinions that he represents. In recent events, I think the positions he has formulated are what one would expect to hear from any democratically minded citizen or scholar, constitutionalist or not. Therefore, it counts positively for him.” The President of SYRIZA was quick to give an assessment, answering the related question that “I do not think that Mr. Venizelos expressed these views because he seeks to redeem them in some political scheme.”

The “ideological and political divisions” of the past must include the “champion of vulgarity” attributed to Mr. Venizelos in 2014 by Mr. Tsipras targeting the Novartis affair, the “heavy” designation he used for Mr. Venizelos and Andreas. Loverdos, Panos Skurletis speaks in 2018 about the possibility of cooperation with KINAL.

How is the turn of Mr. Tsipras interpreted? First, he is believed to be trying to generalize Mr. Venizelos’ position on surveillance in the form of a strong anti-government front. Secondly, given SYRIZA’s desire for post-election cooperation with PASOK, references to “weights” may need to be dropped. Finally, the President of SYRIZA also seeks to increase the attractiveness of his party in the realm of the modernizing pro-European Center, which is considered to have fully formed on the front against SYRIZA in the last elections.