In the pre-election battle, a number of really difficult issues related to the future of the country fall out of public discussion. Important topics are missing, much less the formulation of a vision for Greece in the 21st century with the strategic goal of its revival and international modernization.

Shocking changes are taking place in the world today. Many geopolitical parameters are changing. The West does not have the momentum and strength of the past. The East is developing at a faster pace. These changes directly affect our neighborhood, both in the Balkans and in the Eastern Mediterranean, and create additional problems for European integration itself. The Russian invasion of Ukraine directly calls into question the European structures of peace, security and stability, as well as the application of international law, such as the inviolability of borders. For these big changes, there seems to be little desire to discuss them, but participants may not have to come up with any new idea for the country’s future in new international contexts.

As usual, since international changes are not discussed, even the central issues of the country’s existence are not discussed, such as its relations with Turkey, with Albania, with North Macedonia, the fate of practical memorandums supporting the Prespon agreement, Greek policy on the Cyprus issue. The absence of such vital issues for the future of the country on the election agenda shows how wrong the current agenda is and how problematic the degradation of fundamental problems, on the solution of which the future of Greece largely depends. degree. This is probably also indicative of an attempt to resolve these issues away from the society and beliefs that the parties have had so far.

There is also a second important subject area, which is even more degraded by the country’s foreign policy and defense issues. This cycle is called: “New opportunities and their ignorance.” In particular, Greece has a very well-educated youth, as well as specialized staff, from doctors and engineers to biogeneticists. He has every opportunity to use the possibilities of the era of the 4th industrial revolution, as long as he deeply engages in this topic and spreads it as much as possible in society. More generally, it seems that very few campaigns are about where the country wants to go in the 21st century and how it will be done, especially given the growing opportunity and the risk of being left behind and missing the train of the coming era.

Perhaps these questions go beyond the horizon of the immediate interests of the parties who want to govern, perhaps the educational resources of their “armies of candidates” are not enough, and they are satisfied with the shadow battles of square houses, the height of the walls, scandals. The fights are necessary, but subordinate to the fundamental and long-term ones.

Important topics are missing, much less the formulation of a vision for Greece in the 21st century.

The third big issue that the “power parties” turn a blind eye to is important long-term issues. From having to change the country’s lackluster manufacturing system to ever-increasing debt that’s more than ten years old in the era of memos.

For anyone who thinks rudimentary strategically, it is obvious that without fundamental changes and radical measures, without constant conflicts with the forces of inertia and the oligarchy, these problems will suffocate the country and keep it “backward” even in the conditions of our region. These problems, if left unresolved, will consume all the wealth of society and deprive it of many prospects. These are issues that require a bold, responsible and serious policy together with workers. The latter should be given guarantees and assurances that the life of themselves and the rising generations will be better, that the growing inequality in income and wealth will be defeated, that education and care for them will be better, since only with them can the country make the necessary big leap in future, with new technologies, democracy, geostrategic creative choice.

If the country turns into squabbling administrators with no vision or strategy, it could lead to instability in the political system itself. If the conservative forces win, they will have to face great popular resistance, and the life of their government will probably not be longer than that of the second government of Kostas Karamanlis, since it will not withstand the burden of unresolved long-term problems and the degradation of the country. If progressive forces win, those forces in their ranks that want to govern with relatively high electoral support have neither sufficient support in the mass system nor sufficient institutional “crystallization”. If they try to rely mainly on large business groups, they will find most of their electoral base against them.

So, I want to emphasize that until the main strategic issues and prospects of the country are discussed, the more the dispute is about governance, the more likely it is that the country will fall behind on the international horizon and show new inflection points. . In this case, two different phenomena may appear in a complex mixture: on the one hand, the growth of authoritarianism, and on the other hand, the emergence of an unorganized and uncontrolled spontaneous movement that cannot create conditions for the realization of “big dreams”. Therefore, the country’s post-election prospects will not be easy, and the forces that want to talk about them in time will be met with hostility.

Mr. Nikos Kotzias is a former Minister of Foreign Affairs.