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European spirit has never managed to spread in Greece

12 April 2012 / 14:04:02  GRReporter
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One question that is drawing the interest of many observers is why some smaller parties of similar political platforms do not unite in electoral coalitions. Plamen Tonchev explained that the issue is particularly topical. "I do not see what the principle and ideological differences are between the emerging leftist formations such as Arma politon, Social Alliance and the Democratic Left. I do not understand what the basic difference between George Karatzaferis’ party LAOS and the Independent Greeks of Panos Kamenos is. A moment ago, I heard on the television Karatzaferis accusing Kamenos of plagiarism. With his ironic tone, he publicly "thanked" him for copying his programme. Similarly, I cannot find fundamental differences between Stefanos Manos’ Drasi and the Democratic Alliance of Dora Bakogiannis. The problem is on a personal basis. Often, leaders are not inclined to relinquish their positions. Although the parties of Karadzaferis and Kamenos are similar, I do not think it is possible for Karatzaferis to give way to Kamenos. The situation between Stephanos Manos and Dora Bakogiannis is similar, although in this particular case, there is an ideological confrontation between the supporters of pure liberalism, which are the people of Drasi and the supporters Dora Bakogiannis. They believe that somehow they have to combine their promises with light impurities of populism. Today, she says many accurate things, which she did not say two years ago. And this is a very strong argument against her by the supporters of Drasi. But actually, there are not very great differences between them and it is a matter of leadership."

How does the political analyst determine the role of the media? They blame politicians for not telling the truth to people, and do they represent an objective reality?

"I have had endless discussions with journalist-friends about whether to blame the chicken or the egg. Did the media vulgarize Greek society or does Greek society want vulgarized programmes? I do not know if I can give a definite answer, but the media is obviously at a very low level generally. Whatever the reason, I can focus on the result. And it is that Greek society, in addition to its low educational level, because of the weak and vulgarized media, is uninformed about what is happening in the world. The media should inform the public of the general process of European integration. Two years ago, I was in Utrecht, where I was amazed at how informed about Greece the people there were. We were talking about the benefits received by civil servants here. My counterparts were surprised not only by the fact that there were such benefits, but by their funny names too. They knew all this from the newspapers they read. In Greece, even today there is a belief that "Europe does not understand us and does not know what is happening here." I think Europeans, especially in recent years, because of the crisis in Greece, know amazing details that even the Greeks themselves may not know. Let us now ask the opposite: what do the Greeks know about Europe? If you ask a passer-by about Denmark, for example, he will probably know that its capital is Copenhagen, but nothing more. Greeks are quite uninformed and media are to blame for this. They present programmes of incredibly poor quality rather than the core of things, at least in regard to European affairs. The result of this irresponsible attitude is that the majority of people are convinced that the International Monetary Fund is a villain, whose mission is to come and destroy the country and to join it to the Third World. The media do not explain that the International Monetary Fund is an international organization like the United Nations, which involves about 180 countries. Their taxpayers bring cash in it and the International Monetary Fund grants loans at a low interest rate of around 3%. Because of misinformation again, many Greeks are convinced that their country is the second Argentina. Why is that? Because they have watched a documentary, read a couple of untrustworthy articles in a blog and have created their own opinion. Greek media do not give people the opportunity to compare the information obtained to form their opinion. They are so simple and shallow that instead of informing the citizens, they additionally contribute to their misinformation. But it must be considered in parallel with the low education of the Greeks. I have also studied here and have an opinion about the poor state of Greek education. There may be thousands of young people with university degrees, but generally, neither the school, nor the university trains the Greeks to draw information from various sources, to compare, to have their own opinion and to judge critically. That is why they are so dependent on every piece of nonsense television can feed to them. That is the negative role of the media in Greece."

Tags: PoliticsPASOKNew DemocracyPopulismSocietyEuropean unionPlamen Tonchev
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