Among the programmatic themes, as it were, highlighted by Tempe railway disaster activist Maria Karystianou at the launch of her party, Hope for Democracy, a few days ago in Thessaloniki, were: strengthening entrepreneurship and innovation, cutting red tape and streamlining procedures, supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, caring for the elderly, protecting primary residences and ensuring transparency in the banking sector.
What stands out is not their originality, but their striking resemblance to the standard talking points of most political parties out there. No one expects Hope for Democracy to reinvent the wheel. What people do expect, however, is some indication of how it intends to deliver on the hope it claims to represent. How, precisely, will entrepreneurship be strengthened? How will bureaucracy be reduced?
The applause Karystianou directed toward herself as she recited one political platitude after another seemed entirely disconnected from the applause she has received for months in public squares and packed venues – applause that has given her the opportunity to enter politics with such lofty ambitions. It was self-congratulation without substance.
Was this really the purpose of her political debut: to tell us, with the authority and rhetoric of a politician, what society needs? We already know what we need. After months of preparation and with such broad public support behind her, one might have expected at least a few original ideas about how to achieve it.
