Editorial: Hubris

As a left-wing party, SYRIZA always exhibited a heightened sensitivity, at times with combativeness, on the issue of refugees.

As a ruling party, however, it demonstrated that that sensitivity was at least hypocritical.

The SYRIZA-Independent Greeks government offered a hell on earth to people who sought refuge in Greece in order to escape the ills of their own countries.

At the same time, the government exploited the pain and misery of these people in order to serve its own clientelistic aims.

That was perhaps a predictable development for a government which from the beginning exploited the refugee crisis. The competent minister at first said that migrants were simply sun bathing in central Athens’ Omonia Square, and then that they had disappeared.

The defence minister threatened that he will use migrant flows to pack Europe with jihadists.

From the start it was proven that there is not only a lack of sensitivity, but also a surplus of cynicism.

The government did not only use refugees and migrants as a negotiating card in its skirmishes with creditors. The manner in which it managed European funds earmarked for their care, a huge amount of money, raises at least suspicions.

The massive hiring of doctors, nurses, and administrative staff, beyond all legal procedures, as revealed today in Ta Nea, shows that this government showed no compunction about exploiting anything and everything to achieve electoral objectives.

It insists on acting with hubris.