Winston Lord, a close associate of Henry Kissinger, published a short book in May 2019 called Kissinger on Kissinger. In it, he captures three important policies in which Secretary of State Nixon played a leading role: openness to China, the Arab-Israeli conflicts, and openness to the Soviet Union. When asked what the most important characteristics of a leader are, Kissinger answers with two words: “Character and courage.”

Guided by this seemingly academic, but also empirically proven aphorism, I decided to turn to the personality of the former Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis, following the noble request of “K”. Our eight and a half years of uninterrupted daily many hours of cooperation theoretically lead to the conclusion of an authentic interpretation of personality. A theory that puts you on the side of those who have the naive impression that you know everything, and if you don’t know, then you don’t write, because something deeper is always hidden behind the obvious. The obvious doesn’t sell, and the obvious isn’t always so obvious.

So I thought that there were less than five hundred words left to the end of this article, and I would use Kissinger’s approach as a guide. I will not argue about the definition of a leader, since such characterizes anyone who leads a party or country even for a short time, although in the metaphysics of the term, a politician wearing this mantle usually acquires the qualities of a transcendent being in the collective imagination.

So, here are my own thoughts on the character of the oldest leader, N.D. and former prime minister.

Empathy: At a time when technocracy was reduced by technological flexibility to the highest good, it retained important grains of empathy. Caring for others, for those who need it. The pensioners, who during Kostas Simitis were beaten near Maximos, entered with open gates and with weapons in the hands of Prime Minister Karamanlis, and when the late trade unionist Triantis from the KKE left the palace, he said a phrase confirming the aforementioned concern. : “We understand him, our prime minister, there are so many difficulties in this work and, with the country’s economic problems, he cannot satisfy all our requests” …

A sense of historical duty: “How will I talk to the ghosts of my ancestors?” he told me on the prime minister’s plane returning from a difficult international trip, referring to the difficult Macedonian decision and the threat of a veto in Bucharest proving it.

Twice a week, Rigilli’s morning coffee was attended by people who were not exclusively his political supporters.

Resisting another point of view: Rigilli’s twice-weekly morning coffee was attended by people who were not only his political supporters, but mostly internal party rivals, former or even future contenders for leadership. The same is true in the state scheme. No one was excluded as unloved if he considered it suitable.

Security: The insecurity of any person in office, let alone a leader, is the worst thing that can happen to his associates and, of course, to the country. He himself never felt insecure. Not because of ignorance of danger or responsibility, on the contrary, because of a deep knowledge of the problems, but also of human nature. From our very first discussions, we agreed that “management is the management of souls.” This was also done by Karamanlis, but here I will also point out an important negative side of his character. Great tolerance, which was accompanied by a minimum of severity. Perhaps because he did not express the admiration that many paid his uncle for the “mess” he allegedly made against the ministers. “Politics makes good things better and bad things worse,” he told me when I pointed out the problem of being too lenient and too strict. But he was also tolerant of harsh journalistic criticism. He never complained to a reporter or editor when others answered the phone and asked to be fired.

Ability to inspire: He inspired young people with his dynamic speech and citizens who trusted him for two years in a row. He was the first leader of N.D. who in 2007 won the elections for the second time. Only the founder N.D. he had achieved this thirty years earlier, in 1977.

Courage to live modestly, getting rid of the habitual dependence on places of power. I don’t need to argue further. I know that no one can seriously dispute this rare quality in a leader.

Mr. Theodoros Roussopoulos is the Member of Parliament for New Democracy in the northern sector of the 2nd Athens.