We deceive ourselves and each other

Analysts and party members who tried on Sunday evening to explain how Fidias won 70,000 votes and managed to get an army of young men and women to the polls said young people were disillusioned with the consequences of successive crises and government policies in their lives.

They claim that thousands of young people earn the national minimum wage (some work 40 hours, some 44, some 48), have rent problems, cannot buy a house, have no children, live with their parents and cannot get a job they could aspire with your degrees.

And was it necessary for them to vote for Phidias? Have they never heard of demonstrations, demands, mass struggle, organization, information, joint actions, new movements?

More or less, everyone in the studio agreed. Given such living conditions for a large part of society, parties should not expect anything better from the elections.

Yes, but what do all these well-publicized economic revivals of Cyprus by “foreign houses” that have been welcomed by the government and opposition mean?

Do good reports by the European Commission on the state of our finances and the reduction of public debt count for nothing? Isn’t it enough for the IMF to be satisfied with the significant policies of a competent ministry?

Isn’t the Minister of Finance’s constant satisfaction with our growth rate, which is one of the highest in the euro zone and the EU, enough to say… thank God? Isn’t inflation… decreasing? Isn’t zero VAT “on essential products”?

In other words, one week we are fooling ourselves and each other that the economy is on solid foundations and that we have learned the lessons of 2013 and will not repeat them, and the next week we are saying that young people have every right to turn their backs on parties and politics, since can’t they sustain themselves?

The European elections took place just 15-16 months after the presidential elections, when – once again – the broad masses “turned” on the main parties, “rebelled, woke up, reacted” and elected a “new and honest politician” to the leadership. who had no support from any major party.” Excellent.

Today the question arises whether even half of them still believe in him. Whatever the Commission says, whatever the IMF writes, no matter how much optimism and communication the president exudes and how many cups he raises, a large part of the population insists that they are not doing well, cannot make ends meet, are not very optimistic.

And now they voted again for someone “out of the box”, an even younger man. And if our current President promised us rabbits and trinkets and influenced the poor, Phidias promised nothing.

Guys, he will read, he will learn, he will try to be useful. That’s it. If he manages to do that, well done. If not, something else will appear on YouTube.

You can blame the parties – and the government (this one, the previous one, the previous one) – for a thousand things, there is no discussion about it.

But at some point we have to discuss whether solutions can be found and implemented if we – the electoral base, the society – continue to be who we are. Who we have become and who we are becoming.

How many times have we said: “people have spoken”, “society has become tired”, “young people have had enough”, “voters have turned their backs” and we celebrated because “they brought it on themselves” or “the parties already have it”? Only parties?

How many times have we applauded because we instead put cunning in its place by voting… “instead of letting others decide for us”?

Has anyone seen anything change for the better? And if we all answer: no, then aren’t “people”, “society”, “young”, “older” responsible for anything?

Even when a child makes a joke and thousands of other people behind him say “whatever”?