Intervention of Kostas Karamanlis on national issues on Monday afternoon, at the event for the presentation of the book by Vangelis Plakas, “Constantinos Karamanlis and Thessaloniki” in the co-capital. Kostas Karamanlis spoke at the presentation of the book.

“I want to underline, the concerns and concerns expressed about our national issues are reasonable and real. After all, they are created by the aggression and increasing revisionism of Turkey. Their emergence in essence strengthens our permanent national positions, especially when they are expressed by responsible lips” noted the former prime minister and former president of the ND.

“It is wrong to treat them as critical, since the country remains committed to the national line” added Mr. Karamanlis.

He referred, in fact, to the founder of the faction, Konstantinos Karamanlis, saying that his attitude towards Turkey was “open channels of communication, but with firm positions, always formulated with absolute clarity” and underlined: “The claim that Konstantinos Karamanlis was ready to enter into an all-out negotiation with Turkey, as has been heard from some quarters recently, is not correct. Konstantinos Karamanlis believed that the only dispute with Turkey, that is the delimitation of the continental shelf in the Aegean, should be resolved in accordance with International Law and international treaties, if necessary with an appeal to the International Court of Justice in The Hague on the basis of a co-promissory note. And it was Turkey that backed down then. This is the historical truth. In other words, the insinuation that Konstantinos Karamanlis would be willing to discuss issues that Turkey unilaterally and arbitrarily tries to add to the agenda over time is inaccurate, misguided and perhaps out of slyness.”

The three repositories of Konstantinos Karamanlis

The former prime minister spoke about three legacies left by Konstantinos Karamanlis, which are as follows:

-“First, that the basic condition of democracy and its smooth functioning is social justice and cohesion. I quote his words: “when a people cannot achieve social justice within the framework of democracy, their confidence in the idea of ​​Democracy is shaken.” Or as Plutarch said “the imbalance between the rich and the poor is the oldest and most fatal disease of any democracy”.

-Secondly, respect for institutions and the separation of powers. Human rights, civil liberties, limitations on state intervention, the distinct roles of each power, the independence of the judiciary, citizen security are equally important priorities. Democracy is not only the right to vote and elections. It is also, perhaps above all, respect for the laws and rules of the game.

-Thirdly, the calm political climate and mild political morals. Democracy does not flourish where insults, personal feuds, unbridled party rivalries, dissension and division are the first to speak. Constantine Karamanlis, in contrast to many of his predecessors, never overthrew the government, nor attempted movements, nor divided the Greeks. Even towards his political opponents, he was strict, but always decent and respectful of the other point of view”.

“Despite the fact that he was slandered, slandered, insulted like few others, he never reduced the political disagreement to a personal confrontation. This superiority and qualitative excellence in his public, and not only, behavior had an exemplary and pedagogical effect throughout public life for the benefit of the democratic state,” he said and remarked: “These legacies of Konstantinos Karamanlis are of special importance even today. Because the democratic state may indeed be firmly established in our country, the number of countries with a democratic regime may indeed have increased significantly around the world, but risks to democracy and especially its quality lurk and must be dealt with effectively before they cause irreparable damage”.

The dangers for Democracy

He pointed out that despite the progress that has been achieved there are risks for democracy and called on the West to urgently formulate a new socio-economic model. More specifically, he said:

“The widening of social inequalities, the marginalization of large sections of the population pushes a growing number of citizens to abstain and refuse the political process. Even worse in the eyes of many the system has lost its legitimacy. They either turn into “fugitives from politics”, i.e. they reject their participation in the commons, or into “political nomads” leaving historical parties and turning to more extreme voices and forms. And their dissatisfaction and disappointment leads public life to more and more acuteness, aggression, verbal and not only violence, thus injuring stability and the democratic process. What is happening in most European countries, but also during the pre-election period in the USA, confirms these concerns. There is an urgent need for the West to form a new socio-economic model that will respond to the anxieties, the impasses, the exclusion felt especially by the less favored citizens.

No political system, even parliamentary democracy, can survive for long if it does not have strong legitimacy and credibility in the eyes of the vast majority of citizens. And adding fuel to the fire are those who arrogantly and arrogantly denigrate disgruntled and protesting citizens as regressive, atomized or extremists.

It is shocking the revelation in a recent survey of public opinion, that 50% of respondents state that they feel “outside the walls” outside of society, that is, excluded and unprotected. The growing gap between the few haves and the many have-nots is a bomb in the foundations of democratic normality and stability, and indeed not a slow-burning one.

An equally serious issue is the growing lack of respect for institutions. Lawlessness, all forms of criminality, from child violence and hooliganism to the activity of organized crime clearly show that legitimacy is increasingly questioned. It is the same with justice. There lingers in many European societies a sense of partiality towards the powerful, and severity towards the weak. Even EU member states are tempted to manipulate justice. It should be unthinkable and yet it happens. The delay in delivering justice aggravates the situation even more. But if the many do not trust justice, the democratic state is undermined. Belief in justice is a fundamental condition for the functioning of democracy. As Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of the USA, said, “I believe that the first duty of society is justice.”

A key issue for the quality of democracy is valid, accurate and unbiased information. It is a necessary condition for free choice, which is undermined when information, with or without quotes, serves expedients or vested interests. The rapid technological developments in the field of communication and information, the unimaginable possibilities of the Internet, but also the risks of disorientation, selective information, misinformation and mass dissemination of fake news make the issue one of the challenges of our time. A clear example of our days, the war conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. Beyond the victims and the disasters, the enormous role of modern propaganda emerges. And if for authoritarian regimes this was a common practice throughout the centuries, we also see the democratic West compete with them worthy, but injuring its greatest advantage, the qualitative and moral superiority that a free democratic state must have by definition. I highlight the latter, as the propaganda of targeting and slandering those who do not identify with its dominant narrative tends to become the norm. In the anti-democratic logic of “whoever is not with us is an enemy”.

The relationship of Konstantinos Karamanlis with Thessaloniki and Macedonia

Regarding Constantinos Karamanlis’ relationship with Thessaloniki, he said that it was a “relationship of life and perspective” and added: “Macedon himself had realized from his youth the strategic importance of the region for the future of Greece, its role in the Balkans and the South-Eastern Europe, its importance for safeguarding national interests. She understood that her footprint far exceeded the dimensions of an ordinary urban complex. That it had a special geopolitical weight, a national surplus value, a critical economic, commercial, transport, cultural hub. In other words, a metropolis with a wide hinterland and potential influence, a key crossroads of East – West, North – South. That is why he endowed it not only with emblematic buildings, like the one of EMS that we are in today, but with fundamental infrastructure projects and strong institutions. In simple words, it transformed a Balkan city into a modern European metropolis.”

About Konstantinos Karamanlis, his relationship with Thessaloniki and the works he did in the region, putting his stamp on it, the secretary of the Political Committee of the New Democracy Maria Syregela, the Deputy Minister of the Interior (Macedonia and Thrace) Kostas Giulekas, the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport spoke Christos Staikouras, the president of KEDE, the mayor of Ampelokipi Menemeni Lazaros Kyrizoglou and the journalist-writer Phaedon Giagiozis.