The amphitheater of the Goethe-Institut is one of the few places in Athens where you can travel back… to Goethe’s time. Since it is located in the basement of a building on Omirou Street, mobile phone and Internet signals do not interfere, resulting in the audience faithfully following the speakers. This was especially useful last Thursday during a sensational event called “Will we stay in Europe?” Wiretapping, Rights and the Rule of Law, organized by Pantheion University, the Hellenic Union for Human Rights and the Zero Hour Initiative for Democracy and the Rule of Law. When constitutional law professors such as Evangelos Venizelos, Nikos Alivisatos, Iphigenia Kamcidou and Xenofontas Kontiadis speak, it’s good that mobile phones remain inactive. Because there are many meanings and they are difficult.

The event was filled with many meanings even before it began. He was rejected by the “anti-Syriza” front as a trap for the Syrians, trapping not only Professor Alivisatos, but even such an experienced politician as Evangelos Venizelos, who, wanting to avenge Alexis Tsipras’s summer move in parliament to accept his scientific views for wiretapping, he accepted the invitation . By his presence, he was trapped in order to “signal” the end of more than a decade of war with SYRIZA and the re-establishment of a united front for the defense of European values ​​with Tsiprays in the place of Mitsotaki. and Potamisia New Democracy.

SYRIZA officials such as Nikos Voutsis, Nikos Filis, Nikos Bistis (with the ceremonial red scarf), Giannis Ragusis, Nikos Muzelis, Michalis Kalogirou and Petros Kokkalis were there to greet Venizelos. However, they tried not to express satisfaction that the “sudden appearance” of their centre-left opponent was tantamount to denouncing the ND. They also ensured that Tsipras himself did not evoke undesirable associations with his presence. Venizelos also did not show that he was happy, but under his “professional” severity, he took great pleasure in the fact that his historical opponents gathered to listen to him.

Anna Diamantopoulou publicly expressed her disagreement with her post two days before the event. “Vangeli, I’m surprised and disagree with the choice to ‘support’ a title that brings back an issue no one else is asking. You know perfectly well that the slogan remains, no matter how much you try to analyze it afterwards. Answer: We remain in Europe! End of story”. Venizelos, who twice rebuked Anna, recalling his rich “military record” against SYRIZA, answered with his speech: “We remain Europe with a dot, but also with a colon: without democratic principles, the rule of law, there are no fundamental rights Europe”.

They see the hypocrisy

The former commissioner, as well as Professor Vaso Quinti, who also published a harsh post, believe that SYRIZA is hypocritical and hides in a pro-European sheepskin. They are probably not very wrong, since, for example. speakers close to SYRIZA, Iphigenia Kamcidou and Dimitris Christopoulos, channeled all their concerns about the institutions to the ND’s “talks”. in ensuring the confidentiality of telecommunications. For them, the five-year-old Tsipras remains wrapped in “moral advantage.” Venizelos, however, seems to think that as a pope fighting for Greece in Europe, he can forgive sinners himself without asking for a conclave.

SYRIZA officials such as Nikos Voutsis, Nikos Filis, Nikos Bistis (in a festive red scarf), Giannis Ragusis greeted Evangelos Venizelos.

But did Venizelos forget that they tried to denigrate him in the Novartis case? He didn’t forget it. And he even pointedly mentioned the phrase “the Novartis scam” in his speech, having received complete silence from the current high priests of SYRIZA. These are the same high priests (and their fellow academics who specialize in “strategic silence”) who willingly tolerated (and how the deputies voted) all these schemes and now allegedly worry about the quality of the institutions to such an extent that they were closed for three hours in “Walk” to hear Venizelos and Alivisato explain the damage to the Republic from eavesdropping. How fair is that?

At the event, Kontiadis spoke of a “deep state built into a state state” and Kamcidu wondered, “What kind of liberal state are we talking about when you can’t talk on the phone?” Venizelos spoke of the big problem when the leaders of the army in charge of national security are being monitored for national security reasons without the knowledge of the prime minister. And Alivisatos pointedly said that “you run the risk of being trapped by the mechanisms you have set up to trap your opponents.” On the other hand, the speakers, some out of decency and some out of amnesia, said nothing about “first-time” screenings, or about the leading (and Polish) melancholy about the jambs of unverified institutions.

Some whispered that Tsipras might make a surprise appearance at the event. It did not happen that he did not “burn” the “approach” that Raguzis and Bistis advise him. The presence of PASOK officials such as Kostas Skandalidis, Paris Koukoulopoulos and Andreas Spyropoulos shows that the longtime center-left fiancée’s guardians are once again exploring ways to marry her off to a “zayo”.

After all, should Venizelos honor the “group” of those who misled him for years? “If, as a result, they listened to me, then yes, it was worth it,” he allegedly replied to an interlocutor who accused him of “political disloyalty.” And he went on to explain that either we will treat SYRIZA as a Casidiaris and say it is a danger to democracy, or we will decide to break the artificial lack of consensus.

Why is the lack of consensus “artificial?” Venizelos asked. “Why do the parties agree on everything,” he replied and added: “Will SYRIZA manage financial assistance in connection with the pandemic differently?”. The answer may be yes. Could it be that Tsipras did not cope with crises, like Mati, in a completely “different way”? Isn’t liberal European democracy a compromise, not a value for true Syrians? Are the “others” not competent enough, not democratic enough, not European enough?

Venizelos, of course, said it right at the end: “Don’t think that if Mitsotakis resigns, political associations will change. A wave of voluntary blinkers and eavesdroppers is forming. Why; Because most of the citizens do not want associations to change. And this applies to SYRIZA. That’s why the question arose whether we should come to the event called “We remain Europe” with a question mark.