Sadness has been caused by the news that the historical figure passed away today former minister of PASOK Theodoros Pangalos as announced by his family in a social media post.

He was famous for his rants and scathing statements. The strongest reactions, however, were caused by one of his words from the Parliament in September 2010.

In particular, on September 21, 2010, during a meeting of the “Permanent Committee for Public Administration, Public Order and Justice” regarding the discussion of the bill for the abolition and merger of services, organizations and bodies of the public sector, Theodoros Pangalos, deputy prime minister of the PASOK government George Papandreou said the phrase: “Together we ate”.

It was the time when Greece had already signed the first memorandum, while it had also signed a corresponding loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund. On that day, Theodoros Pangalos said the following: “The answer to the outcry against the country’s political staff, “how did you spend the money?”, which people ask us, is this: “We appointed you. We all ate them together. Within the framework of a relationship of political clientelism, corruption, takeover and humiliation of the concept of politics itself.

The controversial saying of T. Pagalos, “We ate together”

What Theodoros Pangalos argued for “We all ate together”

Almost two years later, in 2012, Theodoros Pangalos released his e-book (175 electronic pages), “Mazi ta fagame” and in it the former minister realistically defended his infamous phrase “Yes, we ate it all together”.

He characteristically stated “the phrase ‘we all ate it together’ means that a large part of us – the Greek people – participated in one way or another in irrational practices and behaviors, over time, in relation to spending and state revenue. What we call a “fiscal crisis” is also our own creation… Citizens, either through actions, or through their inaction stemming from guilt, or simply by electing unsuitable political figures to manage the commons, participate in a collective way in democracy and have the responsibility for their choices…Of course not everyone has the same share of responsibility, responsibility starts from top to bottom”.

At the same time, Mr. Pagalos was referring to the historical course of public debt and deficits since the foundation of the Greek state. In Metapolitevisi he described in detail the course of the debt from Konstantinos Karamanlis to the government of Loukas Papadimos and underlined the responsibilities of the Left: “The majority of the deputies of the Left not only did not propose and did not help in the political and therefore social work, but constituted a barrier to the documented and serious suggestions of others. In all these years, never did a representative of the Left react to hiring, salary increases, allowances, pension increases, company socialization, strike mobilizations or demonstrations… On the contrary, in discussions and proposals they wanted other, even more benefits …”.