By Dimitris Gavelas*

The thoughts expressed they have a source of anxiety about the fate and course of the Greek nation. The question that concerns him concerns how our nation can continue its centuries-old path to historical development. This question is inextricably linked to the election process. The citizen is invited to choose the political formation to which he will assign the administration, the political program to be implemented and the persons who will make up the national delegation.

What purpose do we wish the Greek nation to serve? What is the relationship between Greek reality and the idea of ​​Greece? What is the relationship between the idea of ​​Greece and the idea of ​​the coexistence and cooperation of nations within international organizations?

Participation in the electoral process it is the only way for anyone who is interested in determining the course of the Greek nation, for anyone who aches for the spiritual, moral and political crisis of our time. Modern man can hardly meet this lofty task because of the overcrowding of duties. The lazy treatment of abstinence seems convenient. Difficult, almost unbearable awareness of the responsibility for the decision that will define the present and the future.

One seeks the proper measure, he is looking for “Ariadne” who will deliver it to him. If it does not rise, if it does not move away from the vortex of currents and torques, it is in vain. Momentums turn violent trumpets, market slogans. Let us not forget that in the recent past such slogans gave birth to political formations, some of which (co)ruled the country.

Measured speech does not excite. Measured speech does not abuse words, does not abuse them. He uses them. It addresses the idea to be served, not the juncture of the moment. Now that the violence of the slogans has stopped, it seems useful to reflect on the term freedom of choice, of voting free from barriers and dogmas, from dependencies and slavish habits. Freedom to form a personal perception of things, programs, positions and party pursuits. Freedom that defines man and makes him a citizen, a spirit and not a heterogeneous mass of matter. Freedom that does not tolerate the imposed “orthodoxy of fashion”. Freedom that quenches thirst at the source of liberation from the shackles of spiritual and economic exploitation. Freedom that removes from the mire of the materialistic mentality in the unphilosophical age of the “search engine”.

Ideological background of the future it must be the measure of classical Greek antiquity, the ideal of the state described in the Epitaph of Pericles. These indestructible, eternal ideas are viewed myopically by some. And yet they determine the relationship between the individual and the state and the relationship between order and freedom within society. These timeless principles must be sought in party programs.

We have to choose a party program which does not allow the individual to acquire liberties at the expense of the state. Of course it will not allow the state to limit the creative freedom of the individual. A program that does not make class an instrument of enslaving the creative freedom of the individual, nor freedom an instrument of dismantling order and the functioning of the state. Party programs that would show respect for supranational organizations to the point of partially common economic policy. Party programs that will claim and achieve equal participation in the exercise of supranational power. The evaluative differentiation of nations as pieces of global becoming promotes man. Programs that guard the spiritual and moral autonomy of the person who is swaying in the vortex of materialistic achievements, so that the soul of the individual does not become shallow.

The chatterbox, without evaluative criteria proviso must be eradicated, rejected. The recent past teaches that it only leads to dead ends.

The end of each parliamentary term it means the beginning of the next day. It triggers the review of acts and omissions. The review must be personal and national. At the turn of the year, the path of the future will be drawn. Our vote marks the formation of the national delegation. We must also choose persons who we believe will conscientiously respond to the national mission which is also global. Persons tested in the arena of the profession. People who know when we file a tax return… People who mean what they say and don’t hide what they intend to do… People who are successful in politics and people who are young, incorruptible, willing to give.

*Mr. Dimitris Gavelas is an Athens lawyer, Vice-President of the Board of the Union of Criminologists