Without law, there is no democracy, says Spain's Felipe Gonzalez

It's not every day you get to sit down with a living legend of European politics. Felipe Gonzalez, prime minister of Spain for four consecutive terms (1982-96), was in the Greek capital last week to receive the City of Athens Democracy Award in the context of the annual Athens Democracy Forum. Before the ceremony, Kathimerini had the opportunity to interview him on a wide range of topics.

A large part of the discussion was devoted to the left - its internal debates, its achievements and its blind spots. The emblematic leader of the Spanish social democrats spoke of the "visible" difference between Alexis Tsipras as opposition leader and as prime minister. His fans from the first period, in Greece as well as in Spain, "have now distanced themselves" from him, Gonzalez said.

"I was not a friend of Tsipras and his choices" up to the referendum in the summer of 2015,...