Much has been said and will continue to be said in the coming days about the results of the Greek elections.
Many regard as unrealistic, extreme, dangerous, even the anti-austerity speech given during the campaign for the winning party.
Many others believe that there, in the cradle of Democracy, European social values are reborn and that Greece has given back hope to thousands and thousands of people who throughout Europe, especially in the South, are surviving, bent on policies that encourage unemployment and degradation of living conditions.
It will be, however, unanimous that these results bring a reinforced expectation as to what will happen in Europe in the times to come.
Will the new Greek governing coalition be able to carry out an economic recovery policy aimed at rescuing the people and not the banks? Will it have the necessary political weight to discuss and enforce in the arena and in the corridors of European meetings the economic renegotiations essential for the fulfillment of its electoral promises?
What is already felt is the “fear of the markets, investors, banks”. Is it the fear of not earning everything they had yet accounted for in sovereign public debts or is it even the fear (has the fear, at least for a moment, changed sides?) that people, citizens, have finally realized that , in Democracy, are there always alternatives, is there the will and strength to build them in favor of a more just and equitable society?
What is also felt is that voters are willing to go back to believing in parties, as long as they capitalize on their anxieties. Syriza's victory confirms it and the surveys in Spain regarding Podemos as well.
And voters are also willing to “punish” parties committed to austerity policies and the old formulas – the results of Pasok must be well interpreted by the European socialist parties.
From now on, the duel between democratic legitimacy and the power of citizens and the great economic and capital interests seems to be more evident and more real.
The questions are countless, but the lesson of democracy is all too evident and we are definitely all waiting for what will happen and if, somehow, an echo of change can reach this rectangle by the sea.
Pericles already stressed: “We Athenians decide public matters for ourselves”. I still cannot resist quoting Plato: “The penalty for not participating in politics is that you end up being ruled by those who are inferior to you”.
That citizens realize, once and for all, that power is in their hands and that it is always worth fighting and trying to build a better society, based on values of freedom, equality and fraternity.
And that there is always hope! “For a new utopia, for rebirth, of people, of politics, of action”.
Author: Inês Morais Pereira is a lawyer and member of Civis – Association for the Deepening of Citizenship
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