Listening to those cicadas or crickets if you wish, your Excellences,
allow me to say something that came to mind from a Greek poem, I will say it in
Greek:
«Και
πολλά τα τζιτζίκια που να μην τα νιώθεις
όπως δεν νιώθεις τους σφυγμούς στο
χέρι σου».
Όπως είναι αυτονόητος ο
σφυγμός στο χέρι, οι σφυγμοί στο χέρι μας, έτσι σε αυτόν εδώ τον ευλογημένο
τόπο, είναι αυτονόητη η Δημοκρατία. Και κάπου εδώ θα τριγυρνούσε ο ποιητής όταν
έγραψε αυτούς τους στίχους.
Excellences,
May I first congratulate the organizers for turning the ‘Democracy under
pressure” forum into an international annual event, which will always have all
the necessary support – obviously – from the Greek Government.
Dear friends,
We are living in “interesting times”, as the Chinese say…
Of course, in our case “interesting” is only an understatement, and the
Chinese meant it in an ironic way, as a synonym for “crisis”.
But “Democracy under pressure” does not necessarily mean “crisis”.
Democracy is not just an institutional context of governance. It is the
guarantee of Political Freedom, Social Justice, citizens’ responsibilities,
human dignity, opportunities, therefore prosperity for all.
Democracy is about all of them. Not some of them.
It guarantees all of those features.
If one is missing, Democracy has corrective mechanisms to attain it
back. It takes time, it does not happen momentarily, but democracy is a dynamic
system; it works if people believe in themselves, individually and
collectively;
It works, if they share common values, shaping up their common identity;
if they are willing and capable of assuming responsibilities;
if they do believe in their common future;
Indeed democracy works, if they have Hope as a society and if they base
such a Hope on Truth, as well as on their collective determination to succeed
as a society in the future.
* Dignity is of outmost importance. People can lose some of their wealth
and still keep their dignity. If this is the case, then Democracy has no
problem. Prosperity will soon come back.
* Freedom is also of outmost significance; and Social Cohesion, also.
--A democratic society does not sacrifice freedom to maintain its unity
and does not sacrifice its unity to attain freedom. Those two are
inseparable!
Freedom relies on citizens’ rights that are fully matched by citizens’
responsibilities. Responsibilities without rights lead to authoritarianism, and
democracy starts falling apart. On the other hand, rights without
responsibilities lead to social unrest and political collapse; and then both
society and democracy fall apart.
* Common values are also essential. Only citizens sharing the same
identity can form a “community” that can be self-governed. Democratic debate -
and this is where the initial debates took place in History- can only take
place and produce consensus results, if it is based on the common interest, so
that everybody accepts the majority rule.
Because only if citizen share common values, can they debate on their
common prospects.
--“Citizens” presuppose a “city”, in other words a “community” of
people, sharing common values and common identity. Without this “sense of
belonging”, people are just “individuals” trying either to impose themselves
upon others or separate themselves from the others.
Whatever undermines or destroys this “sense of belonging”, is always
very detrimental for democracy in the long run.
* And finally the two T’s: Trust and Truth!
--Trust of citizens to their common prospects as a community
--and Trust based on the Truth.
Societies can go through hardships, they can sail through rough waters,
trying times and difficult moments, only if they believe in their common
prospects and base this belief on the Truth: If they know where they stand,
where they want to go, if they are aware of all obstacles lying ahead and are
determined to do what it takes to achieve their goals…
If this is the case, democracies can release enormous potential out of
the community and its people. No hardship will ever derail them.
But if they don’t believe in themselves, if they have no Trust to their
common prospects, if they prefer “sweet lies” to hard truth, then they usually
stumble from one disappointment to the next; and this generates public
discontent, dividing the society, weakening the community bonds and eventually
destroying democracy.
So Trust based on Truth is a necessary ingredient for citizens to assume
responsibilities, sustain difficulties, thus making democracy to work…
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Indeed, Democracy is not just a set of legalistic rules. It is alive! It
grows, it evolves, it can go through crises, but it possesses corrective
mechanisms; it has its own antibodies; so most of the times it overcomes its
problems, survives, recuperates and grows stronger than before.
Therefore “pressure” is not a problem for Democracy…
Democracies live through pressures and evolve under pressure.
The problem is when the corrective mechanisms of democracy fail one
after the other; when the preconditions for its functioning are weakened; or
when many different “pressures” coincide simultaneously…
In such a case, we don’t have ordinary “pressures” anymore; we are
facing a real crisis then!
In periods of crisis, we have two different destabilizing factors, both
being fed by the crisis, both being fed by each other, in other words both
weakening the antibodies of democracy and destabilizing the social fabric and
the democratic legitimacy:
These two “evils” are Populism and Extremism: They have different faces;
sometimes they are distinct; sometimes they are mixed together; but they are
always interrelated.
They destroy the community’s sense of belonging; they spread out fear
and disillusionment; they invoke conspiracy theories and “doomsday scenaria”.
They try to eliminate trust to common prospects; they are divisive; they
comprise together the “perfect recipe” for social collapse: fear of the outside
world and internal hate!
Lies and mistrust are their common base.
If they succeed, society gets paralyzed, democracy fails to produce any
consensus, public order breaks down, public security is jeopardized, democratic
legitimacy is weakened and violence erupts leading to a fracture of social
cohesion and failure of democracy.
Populism relies mainly on “sweet lies”, on false promises of “easy
solutions” and “quick fixes”, totally unsubstantiated but very “attractive”,
leading, of course, to grave disappointments and to social unrest.
Extremism relies on hate and unmasked violence, widespread expectations
of disaster and nihilist ideologies, leading to the complete breakdown of
public order and democratic legitimacy.
Populism often feeds the fire of extremism and vice versa. The
underlying crisis is their common breading ground and together they generate a
vicious cycle, a devastating process, during which social cohesion and
democracy usually fall apart.
So what do we do during such crisis to avert those twin evils of
populism and extremism?
For starters, we fight the lies with the Truth.
--Fight politics of hate, by re-establishing dignity and fundamental
belief in community values and common prospects.
--Re-establish Hope based on Truth, and Social Cohesion based on public
security, democratic legitimacy and prospects of prosperity for all.
But how do we do that?
* With reforms! Sweeping reforms, well orchestrated reforms…
*By reinvigorating symbols that re-establish national unity and social
cohesion.
* By addressing pressing issues of Social Justice and Public Order.
* By correcting long standing distortions, so that people can start
believing in the reforms.
Remember that you cannot fix everything overnight.
But you cannot drag your feet, either…
You first have to give people a chance to realize the potential of the
reforms, so they can sustain the “discomfort” of the initial stages.
Timing is very essential. You must go ahead with all the reforms
necessary to bring society back on its feet and regenerate trust to its common
prospects.
But at the same time, you must make your reform program compatible with
the political cycle; because without democratic legitimacy no reform program
can survive in the long run; and because reforms will only succeed, if they
generate their own momentum in the society.
Otherwise, populism and extremism will eventually get the opportunity to
derail reforms. And democracy for that matter...
So if anybody wants to talk about “democracy under extraordinary
pressures”, Greece is the perfect place to look upon today.
Two years ago, Ladies and gentlemen, this country was falling apart!
It was running enormous budget deficits; its nominal debt was exploding;
a long lasting recession was running deeper and unemployment was increasing to
unprecedented levels. The world markets were closed for Greece and most of our
partners, although still providing loans to us, were publically questioning
whether we would be able to stay within the euro-area. At the same time, public
order was in jeopardy, wild strikes were becoming an everyday routine, and
capital was fleeing from the country…
Today the picture is completely different: We have already achieved a
primary surplus in our budget for 2013, one year ahead of the Program! We are
running a bigger primary surplus for 2014, better than the program target. We
are expected to almost balance our overall budget by next year, 2015, covering
on top of our primary balance interest payments on our debt, for the first time
in many decades.
We are thus completing the largest fiscal adjustment in History, in the
shortest time ever. And at the same time we have implemented structural reforms
at an unprecedented scale.
Within two years we jumped
from position 147th place to the 36th place in the world
competitiveness rating, according to the World Bank survey! 111 positions up!
And at the same time, despite
the painful austerity, we managed to put an end to recession. In the current
third quarter of 2014, our GDP will be positive, for the first time in 24
quarters. After six years of recession, recovery is ante portas. Especially
now, when our banks are becoming fully recapitalized…
Unemployment, incredible high,
endurably high, has already started
falling. Small portions, but
falling. And our debt, still very high as a percentage of our GDP, has started
nominally falling, for the first time in decades. Public order is steadily
improving. Our tourism will post a new historical record in 2014 of more than
20 million visitors, after last year’s record of 18 million. 20 million! Two
tourists for each Greek.
And finally, last April we got
out in the markets, two years ahead of schedule. New Greek bonds have been very
well received by the world financial community and have been constantly
improving since.
We are grateful to our
partners for all of their support, but we are moving fast to the point where we
will be able to deal with our financial and fiscal problems on our own, as was
the case with Ireland and Portugal.
Of course, the reforms will go
on. The jump of 111 places in world competitiveness rating is remarkable, but
we are going to move further up: to the real top places of world
competitiveness! This is a truly solid and credible guarantee of long term
sustainable growth. And speaking as an economist, I will say that this is the
only guarantee for long term sustainable growth.
So populism and Extremism will
loose their chance. During the most difficult moments of the crisis, they
failed to gain new ground. Now that we will be getting out of the crisis,
populism and extremism will steadily subside.
Indeed, many people suffered
during the last years. We have completely reversed the downward trend of our
society. But it was hard and painful. Very hard and very painful! And frankly
speaking, I don’t know of many democratic societies which could sustain such
seismic changes and incredible reforms in such a short time…
The important thing I want to
stress, is that despite their legitimate grievances, the Greek people did not
turn to Populism and Extremism!
They both got stronger - yes -
but not strong enough to derail our reform process or our democracy for that
matter.
Now that the worst is over,
things are going to improve and liberal democracy along with European ideals
will pull the country through its worst crisis in the post war decades. There
will be no dreadful Weimar Republic scenario for Greece!
The numbers show it! The world
markets know it. Our partners admit to it. The rating agencies are confirming
it: Greece is back!
But our effort is not over
yet. The enemies of reforms are launching their last campaign to derail what we
have achieved so far. Lots of populist false promises, lots of petty politic
“quick fixes” that if materialized would bring the country back to the worst
moments of 2011. And I can foresee that they more they fail to present
themselves as a credible alternative, the more false promises, the more
fraudulent commitments will be spread around…
But Greece is coming successfully
to the end of the Program.
And nobody is going to make
our country a modern Sisyphus!
Two years ago we were the
weakest link in Europe. Now we are becoming the most stable country in a
destabilizing region.
Everybody realizes the huge
geopolitical turbulence around us. Everybody understands that Greek stability
and Greek growth prospects, so direly attained in the past two years, cannot be
wasted, cannot be sacrificed on the altar of populism or extremism.
These days are over for good.
Greece is back!
We are getting out of the
crisis, because our democracy withstood the pressures.
And this painful experience
will only make us better as an economy, stronger as a country, more united as a
society and wiser as a people.
Thank you.
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