By Penelope Galliou

A paradoxical reversal of roles has been created by the political current affairs lately, with the opposition and especially SYRIZA and PASOK from the role of “controller” to playing “defense” either due to their internal party developments, as is the case in Koumoundourou, or due to a change of attitude from permanent positions, such as in Harilaou Trikoupi on the issue of non-state universities.

Piraeus and Megaro Maximos in the case of SYRIZA, they are officially not involved in its internal parties, however they do not overlook the institutional “vacuum” caused by the almost exclusive dealing with “the affairs of their house”, leaving the role of the official opposition in second place, as commented by government sources.

However, the same is not the case with PASOKwhich has been directly targeted by the government due to its reversal of a key reform to establish non-state non-profit universities, causing a bitter “bra de fer” between them.

What they “charge” Harilaou Trikoupis and Nikos Androulakis is that he chooses to go against the party’s long-standing position on the issue of private universities, suddenly changing his position, just before the bill was submitted to the Parliament. After all, what government officials point out and remind is, on the one hand, that many PASOK officials were overstating the need for reform in the previous period, while at the same time they refer to the fact that George Papandreou, as PASOK leader and leader of the official opposition in 2006, had proposes to the revisionist Parliament at the time, the operation of non-state universities, arguing in favor of the revision of the relevant article 16 of the Constitution which never, in the end, gathered the required majority for its change.

“We are moving forward with yet another self-evident reform that corrects yet another Greek exceptionalism,” commented the Minister of State in a post Akis Schertsosat the same time fighting against the two largest opposition parties on the issue of Universities.

Mr. Skertsos spoke of the ostrichism of both SYRIZA and PASOK, assessing that “the constantly scornful attitude of their leaders is yet another example that explains both the current political impasses of the opposition and why self-evident reforms have been unjustifiably delayed in our country, creating lagging conditions in relation to the rest of Europe”.

Megaros Maximos even connects the attitude of the two opposition parties with the rivalries and tactics between them, in the struggle to claim supporters and voters from the same pool. In particular, for Nikos Androulakis, it is estimated that he seeks to fill the vacuum that SYRIZA seems to be creating due to his internal party squabbles, but the only thing he succeeds in doing is creating a “green SYRIZA” as the government representative described Androulakis’ stance. “We are now talking about the creation of a “green SYRIZA”. The citizens have rejected the nihilistic logic, they have rejected “no to everything”. For some reason Mr. Androulakis wants to bring it back with a different background. His right. The country, however, it will move forward” commented Mr. Marinakis.