After the indecisive elections of May 6, 2012 Greek voters are invited again to select their next government from the same set of non-inspiring set of politicians who failed to generate enthusiasm from an electorate terrorized by repeated austerity measures, unemployment, bankruptcies, despair and worries of what the next day of the election will bring to Greece.
The May 6 election results obviously were a major upset for the two traditional political parties who dominated politics and ruled the country for several decades and this must be considered a big victory for at least defeating the decades old "Duocracy."
Unfortunately, for Greece it appears that the June 17 elections will not produce any strong government and the best-case scenario is to form a weak and fragile coalition, which most likely will not last long under the present and future problems of the country.
Despite the huge victory achieved by the traditionally small parties who succeeded to defeat the two-party system, it appears that a great opportunity is going to be lost because even the small parties failed to present a clear and realistic program for implementation to lead the country out of the present financial disaster.
Undoubtedly the stunning defeat to the two party system in Greece sends a strong message to every similar political system in the world that the multiple and complex problems the world faces today cannot be solved by traditional politics, old ideologies and speeches of empty rhetoric.
All political parties based their election campaigns on empty promises. Instead of programs for solutions, they are inviting the electorate to choose between pro-euro parties, which mean ratification of the present as well as additional future austerity measures, and the anti-euro parties. This tactic resulted to making as central issue the euro side or drachma side -- but no one is telling the Greek people that Greece at this moment owns none of the two.
Greece is facing multiple and complex problems which no politician dares to mention because they have not done the homework enough to provide answers to some of the following issues:
Economy: What exactly will they do to start making the economy productive? Are they going to keep borrowing endlessly knowing perfectly well that the present generation of Greeks cannot pay the present enormous debt and that they will pass the bill to the next generation to pay?
Unemployment: What programs do they have for job creation? This issue has been completely left out and the emphasis is given to either we stay in the euro or get out? Let us face it. The euro zone and the European Union are a luxury for the Greeks today because they do not have the euro and cannot afford the European standards of living.
Continuation in staying in the euro is like staying in a luxury hotel without money in our pockets.
This fact must be understood by all those who truly care about the welfare of the Greek people and want to try to help them get out of the expensive Union and start re-building their economy through hard work, less luxuries and less borrowing.
Public sector employment: How will they reform and reduce the unjustifiable big number of public sector employees? Past wrong policies converted the tiny public sector employment requirements into the biggest employer of the country with permanent job security, lucrative salaries, bonuses plus other benefits opportunities, etc. and made it the dream of each family to educate their child to become a public sector employee. Because they were afraid to jeopardize their political benefits from this vote-rich sector, none of the candidates ever mentioned his intentions of how to substantially reduce the number of employees.
Education: Free education is a huge investment by the state. Yet instead of reaping benefits from it, the educational institutions resemble diploma factories producing young unemployed graduates. What will they do to correct this wrong and make the young graduates productive for the economy? How they are going to reform the educational system and make it produce only the needed number of graduates for each profession?
Agriculture: What will they do to reform the agricultural sector and make it productive for the economy? Traditionally, this sector was among the backbone of the economy and today is been left behind because the Greek farmers dreamed of educating their children to become government employees, office managers, etc. But instead they ended up unemployed graduates, resulting in Greece transitioning from being a self-sufficient country to an importer of agricultural products.
Lacking ideas to make the people productive and the economy growing, most of the political parties are chasing rainbows in the European Union and brainwashing the voting population into thinking that our survival depends on borrowing more money from the EU partners, which ignores the fact that living on borrowed money makes people lazy and non-productive.
No one is using common sense to stop believing that the EU is a charity institution or custodian benefactors of Greece.
No one is thinking of what legacy we will leave for the next generations of Greeks. Following the policy of unstoppable borrowing from the next generation is immoral, unethical and unfair because not only are we not asking them to pay the bill, but we also will turn over to them a financially devastated country.
In conclusion, the May 12, 2012 Greek election results proved that duocracies can be defeated. The non-formation of government or a fragile weak coalition resulting from the June 17, 2012 elections will teach everybody that the voters demand realistic government programs to solve the multiple problems, not empty talk.
Therefore the politicians must stop the treasure hunting for easy money in the EU and start the hard work of finding solutions to the problems.
Having said all these, I wish a good luck to every fellow Greek all over the world.