Editorial: Mannerism

The head of SYRIZA’s Citizen’s Protection policy section did nothing more than follow his party’s mannerism.

That is the ease with which main opposition cadres discern responsibilities of their political opponents for whatever goes wrong in the country.

That applies among others to SYRIZA’s former infrastructure and transport minister Christos Spirtzis, who due his long political career and experience, both in his current and previous party (Pasok), can comprehend which issues merit a harsh political clash and which ones do not.

The recent, 11th femicide so far this year is clearly in the latter category. That is patently obvious for Spirtzis’ female fellow party members, who hastened to condemn his related tweet as an “extremely coarse attempt to instrumentalise the latest heinous femicide”.

The role of the main opposition is to criticise the faults of the government, not to politicise serious social issues.

The problem, say those in the left wing who sought to justify Spirtzis’ political foul regarding the culprit in the latest femicide, is that someone who had been charged with abusive behaviour continued to possess a rifle.

Unfortunately, the problem is deeper and has to do with the perceptions of the culprit and others that led him to press the trigger to murder a woman.

Precisely because the problem is so deeply rooted and complex it is not an appropriate issue for cheap opposition grandstanding.

We all have a duty to work together to combat the threat against girls and women.

Politicians are obliged to transcend their regular vote-mongering if they truly want to help in the battle against the true causes of femicides.