Failed politicians on the party ticket

The truth is that SYRIZA does not have the moral high ground to call for the removal of Kostas A. Karamanlis (III), who resigned as transport minister in the conservative administration following the deadly train collision, from the New Democracy party ticket. Not because the main leftist opposition does not have a say on the issue. Nor because it has allowed ex-minister Nikos Pappas to run in the next election despite his being recently convicted to a suspended two-year sentence over his role in the 2016 television licenses tender - in what was a deliberate attempt to rig the democratic system.

Karamanlis had "a stroke of bad luck on his shift," to recall a phrase immortalized by former regional governor Rena Dourou to describe the incompetence of state services during the deadly wildfires in eastern Attica in 2018. The devastating wildfires in Mati and the deadly flash...