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Anastasia Balezdrova

At the symbolic distance of several hundred metres from the Greek Parliament and the building, which houses the Prime Minister office, a new political initiative was founded in Athens today, based on the conviction that the present political system is not able to cope with the crisis in a proper way.

In parallel with the founding declaration of the political initiative Social Union, its members were presented too - renowned individuals in the public space, including the former minister and PASOK deputy George Floridis, the novelist Apostolos Doksiadis, the economists Yannis Stournaras and Aristos Doksiadis and others.

"Our country is going through a deep social, economic and political crisis that is becoming more political, because of the inability of the political system to respond in an effective manner," said Apostolos Doksiadis at the beginning of his presentation. He stressed that the basic idea of ​​the new political initiative is "to move the country forward in Europe."

"The Social Union is not a party, nor does it intend to become one. But if it met wider party groups, formations and new people who would agree to form a party based on this general idea, then we would like to be part of this party," said Apostolos Doksiadis.

In his speech, former Minister of PASOK George Floridis said that "the political system must first recognize an important truth: that it bears the greatest responsibility for the present situation in the country. Otherwise, it would transfer responsibility to others or to the trade unions and it would believe that the fault lies in society, therefore, in them." He pointed out that he had resigned and gave up his parliamentary mandate in June, namely to highlight his big differences with the political system, taking his responsibility at the same time.

George Floridis proposed that "with or without elections," the Parliament should immediately draw up  a government of national consensus to achieve "a better understanding with our partners to enable Greece to withstand the severe trials it is going through." He called for a radical renewal and democratization of institutions and explained that one of the parameters of this proposal is the recognition that when a politician is elected for a party leader, he takes the entire party without taking a second opinion. "When that person becomes prime minister, he takes the whole country as a subject. If he is "a bright mind," things are all right. Otherwise, there are not institutional counterweights that could stop a bad prime minister."

The economist Yannis Stournaras examined the economic parameters of the crisis, pointing out that the reason for it is in the public sector. "Our politicians have expanded the unproductive public sector and established a Soviet-type economy in which state enterprises are managed equally by their management bodies and the respective trade unions. Greece is perhaps the most "closed" economy among the countries - members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development after Turkey in terms of closed professions. Here, hatred to competition has been ruling and to a large extent, the business has been closely connected with the state. We support the making a fiscal adjustment. Who is saying that things could change without this is lying. State spending must be reduced, including for military equipment. We say "no" to raising taxes, reducing public investment and support the full liberalization of closed professions, improving education and utilization of state property, which we should no longer perceive as a sacred cow." The economist Antigone Lyberaki added that the Social Union supports the layoffs in the public sector. "While all were protesting against the introduction of the labour reserves in the public sector, over half a million people were fired in the private sector. And these are the people who are largely bearing the consequences of the crisis. This is not possible to continue. Our position is very clear: there should be layoffs in the public sector."

The founding declaration of the Social Union states that its main purpose is "to strengthen information, dialogue and action to activate civil society." The participants in the new political initiative consider a priority the formation of a government that "shall aim to contribute to rebuilding the country and its national goal will be its active participation in the European Union and the euro zone in terms of the necessary fiscal discipline. The new source of wealth in it will not be the state, but the productive economy, open schools and universities with emphasis on those who deserve, not on party friends."

The new movement involves the civil association Atenistas, the union of victims of terrorism Enough, the non-profit orgnisation to fight poverty and inequality ActionAid and the teachers' union Thales and Friends, which within a few years, has managed to create over 300 workshops for extracurricular reading of books in Greece.