The ideology of centralism

Citizen Protection Minister Giannis Oikonomou has a point when he says that his role is not that of a "policeman, an operational official, to draw up plans for dealing with hooligans, or to explain the self-evident - that is, that they [the hooligans involved in the killing of a 29-year-old soccer fan in Athens] should not have been allowed to cross half of Greece without being stopped somewhere." That's how it should be. But then again, is it the job of the finance minister to order the removal of illegal sunbeds from island beaches? How many times have we heard that some infringement was dealt with "by order" of the prime minister?

As the proverb goes, "success has many fathers, failure is an orphan." But if good decisions are the result of an order from the prime minister or minister, so should the failures be attributed to them. Either the state can act decisively...