You have to hand it to Venizelos, even though he is going to elections on Sunday he is continuing to target Greeks with his threats and ultimatums.
If this is the sort of behaviour that gets people elected in Greece, then maybe the Greeks deserve everything they get.
In his latest speech from Syntagma Square in Athens he said the following (dubbed translation from France24)
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If Greek people do not vote for him Greece would leave the Euro and the EU
If Greek people do not vote for him Greece will be put back 20-30 years
If Greek people do not vote for him the country will descend into poverty
I mean if threatening the electorate gets you elected in Greece then Greeks can expect to be threatened even more in the future, I mean, if Venizelos/PASOK get elected then it is open season on Greece.
Okay, you may say he is correct, I do not believe he is but let’s pretend.
Are threats and insighting fear in the population really the best way to get your point across?
Would it not be better to explain the situation and let people come to their own conclusions?
ie I think X will happen because of Y if Z does this.
If Venizelos would take the time to explain the details then maybe he would be more credible.
If he wants people to believe in what he is saying then he must explain his logic, that way people can make an educated judgement about what he saying.
If his argument stands up to scrutiny then people will agree with him.
Personally, I think his logic does not stand up to scrutiny which is why Venizelos/Provoloulos/Papademos do not want to explain the details that lead them to believe what they do.
If they did lay out their argument in detail then the Greeks would see right through the threats and intimidation and see their argument for the house of cards it really is.
No, much better for them to cloud their arguments by stirring up emotion in the people rather than letting the Greek people analyse the situation logically.
But like I said, you have to give Venizelos and the entire PASOK/Coalition regime credit for not deviating from their strategy of fear.
The drum of the a Drachma return, an exit from the EU, sending the country back 20 years and the drum of widespread poverty has been played by Papandreou, Provopoulos, Papademos and Venizelos from the start and it appears that the tune is still not old, at least to them.
From what I have been hearing from Greeks, this election is going to lead the Greek political situation to complete gridlock with no obvious majority.
Which has to be a good thing for Greece.
For the parliament to be in disarray makes it much more difficult for the country to be manipulated by foreigners, it also makes the passing of further austerity measures almost impossible.
And in addition to that it also makes it more likely for some of the self-destructive measures to start being repealed.
Finally there is a chance that there might be some light at the end of the tunnel.
It’s not just that; if we don’t vote for Venizelos or his “right wing” counterpart Samaras then the sea will run dry and the sky will fall on our heads. We’re gonna go back to the stone age and become hunter-gatherers! No no its not an empty threat its a serious warning! Actually “sending the country back 20 years” isn’t a bad idea. 20 years ago the numbers were much better especially unemployment was much much lower than it is now. It just sounds scary but its actually a good thing!