Dangerous political games

As days go by, it becomes clear that the Turkish provocation to Russia is yet another unreasonable episode of the policy exercised by Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan; within and outside his country.

Apparently, every political decision is evaluated based on its results and in Turkey’s case, a few days after the downing of the Russian fighter plane, the financial and diplomatic implications are already massive. Russian President Vladimir Putin took advantage of an unexpected opportunity to relocate Russia’s troops and state of the art air defense missile systems further south, a move that would upgrade the superpower’s dominance in the area, affecting Turkey’s defense and the war in Syria. Furthermore, Turkey will continue to live in fear of retaliation from Russia, since there isn’t really a chance a superpower state to bypass and forgive humiliation caused by an inferior country’s actions.

It is also important to mention Greece’s unexpected geostrategic upgraded role in the Southeastern Mediterranean region. This is something that the Greek government is called to act upon immediately.

In Athens however, Alexis Tsipras’ government once again has convinced us that its greatest opponent is not the opposition parties, but the ruling party itself. The governmental majority in Parliament has been confined to 153 seats and there have been concerns that some governmental MPs might refuse to vote in favor of the pension funds’ restructuring draft bill.

Acting as a counterweight to this absurdity, Prime Minister and President of SYRIZA, Alexis Tsipras, strives to govern, but also to turn his party into a modern, European, center-left political organization. Maybe he succeeds, maybe not.

In and outside Greece however, what matters is for Greece to rely on a stable government. Thus – abruptly though – the country will acquire an enlarged governmental coalition not later than Christmas and formally in early January. During a meeting of all political leaders headed by the President of the Hellenic Republic, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, the Prime Minister officially put the consensus issue on the table… He intends to conclude his plan proceeding to the formation of a broader governmental scheme later on.

*Konstantinos M. Pantzios is a journalist and a political analyst.

PHOTO: Alexis Tsipras facebook page