Editorial: Feudal lords

It has been said, rightly, that the SYRIZA-Independent Greeks government has copied all the ills of the last 40 years, and even earlier.

It is not simply the fact that this government uses the state as a partisan fiefdom, as previous governments had done the same.

It is the fact that ministers behave like feudal lords, often in direct competition, or even in open war warfare with each other.

That situation is fodder for political gossip, but it also produces results. A government in which every minister sets up personal fiefdoms cannot function.

A government which is comprised of power sub-systems does not offer a service to the country. Ministers who undermine, snitch, or attack each other cannot produce substantial results.

A prime minister who veers between the role of a Machiavellian orchestrator, and of a passive observer who simply urges or allows ministers to engage in mutual political extermination, does not serve his office.

Certainly, power produces wear, and often corruption. The hatred and passions that one sees may be the result of that wear.

The country, however, cannot be divided up into fiefdoms, nor does it have the luxury of simply watching feudal lord-ministers pursuing political turf, in a fight until final annihilation – not their own annihilation, but that of the country.