The Honorable Vaxevanis and the Dishonorable Tsipras
“Truth be told, what do I have against Alexis Tsipras? I will write what I believe, considering that in doing so I serve both Democracy and myself.” (Documento)
They used to call Savvas Konstantopoulos, publisher of Eleftheros Kosmos, a “river columnist.” He was a journalist who, beyond being a supporter of the junta and a purveyor of nonsense during the Dictatorship, seemed to have divorced himself from punctuation altogether.
Kostas Vaxevanis is not a junta supporter, admittedly. Yet in yesterday’s lengthy screed in his newspaper Documento—a sprawling text that he characterizes as a journalistic article—he explains why he is not aligned with Alexis Tsipras in the former prime minister’s new political course. Out of the countless things he says, most of which could have been condensed into two paragraphs, it appears that he wants to convince us that he, as a journalist, is honorable, whereas Tsipras, as a politician, is dishonorable. According to him, that is why their paths have diverged.
The truth, however, is different. Kostas Vaxevanis is one of the worst predators of commercial journalism. Whatever money he has made, he has extracted from the murder of an institution that his profession transformed into a lucrative and highly profitable trade. And if Tsipras ever succeeds in driving out the Mitsotakis stench, many people will lose their daily bread. Among them will be the irreverent journalist and all the fine representatives of the synthetic Left, such as Zoe Konstantopoulou, Yanis Varoufakis, Panagiotis Lafazanis, and the rest of the professional “politicians.”
What will all these people do without the “Barbarians”? Without the Mitsotakis scandals that still keep them afloat in politics and in the Goebbels-style marketplace of propaganda? For example, little Kostas, once a self-styled Pulitzer-worthy investigative journalist, may end up earning his living lounging on Angeliki Nikolouli’s sofa. As for the leaders of the pseudo-left party formations, before long not even the doormen of their apartment buildings will recognize them, to borrow Katsifaras’s famous spontaneous and self-aware remark.
Alexis Tsipras’s major mistakes are well known. For years we have been hammering him over them. But today is not the time to repeat them. We will, however, once again mention the worst of them all—not merely as a mistake, but as a scandal of megaton proportions. It is the one thing that all those otherwise “most honorable” and self-proclaimed enemies of Mitsotakis do not dare even whisper, because they themselves are accomplices.
His greatest crime was that he failed, as he should have, to send Karamanlis’s nephew—the infamous “little Kostas from Rafina”—to prison for the crime of bankrupting the country. All his other mistakes, which do not amount to scandals, come after that. This is the charge we have consistently placed first in the pages of Historical Journalism, for years and with the severity it deserves.
On the other hand, we must praise and preserve that historic decision by the then prime minister to keep the country in the euro and on its European course. Faced with the critical choice between populistically implementing the referendum result or following reason and an honorable political course, he did what had to be done. If the country remained standing amid the devastation of bankruptcy, that is due exclusively to Alexis Tsipras. That is the historical truth.
No lengthy or profound analyses are required to evaluate that decision historically. Such exercises are tricks and performances of commercial journalism, designed to fill pages and broadcast hours, or to muddy the clear waters of History like ink-squirting octopuses wielding pens.
What is the common meeting point of all anti-Tsipras fury among those who openly or covertly support the Mitsotakis narrative regarding the referendum? The point where Kyriakos, Zoe, Varoufakis, Vaxevanis, Raptis, and even I. K. Pretenderis all agree and reinforce one another?
That ALEXIS TSIPRAS BETRAYED THE PEOPLE’S MANDATE OF THE REFERENDUM AND FAILED TO TAKE THE COUNTRY OUT OF THE EURO.
But when asked whether the country should have followed the path of the drachma, all these “most honorable” friends and “enemies” of Kyriakos rush to distance themselves and, with remarkable audacity, answer:
“Certainly not.”
Then how, you wretched demagogues and professional liars, could “two watermelons be carried under the same arm”?
Let us finish.
In today’s global political system, the only remaining and valid hope is the principle that the lesser evil is preferable. Biden instead of Trump, Navalny instead of Putin, Magyar instead of Orbán. Alexis Tsipras instead of Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Nothing more, nothing less.
At this moment, Alexis Tsipras is the only person capable of removing the Mitsotakis plague from the country. No one else in the anti-right political camp has such a capability. The reasonable and honest citizen sees this truth. Just as Kyriakos’s water-carriers can see themselves losing their privileges should Tsipras return to power, and therefore refuse—under ridiculous pretexts—to join the struggle for the de-Mitsotakification of the country.
Let us be sensible. If we must lose one of our two hands, let it be the left one. Most tasks are done with the right hand.
Unless, of course, one happens to be left-handed.
In other words, a MOST HONORABLE FRIEND OF KYRIAKOS.
Though, to be fair, officially and above all else, a DECLARED… ENEMY OF HIS!