All the parties, government and opposition, formed in the years of the long post-colonial period propaganda mechanisms, developed communication schemes and from time to time built groups and networks of supporters to achieve their political goals and aspirations.
At the dawn of the post-political intersection, in the first post-war years of the restoration of political and individual liberties, even the smallest political figures and marginal groups of street politics had publications, even if of small circulation, or tried to gain contact and communication with the wider common opinion through posters, wall newspapers, events and gatherings.
However, the terms of projection and confrontation were always purely political, constituted on an informal moral political basis, without personal attacks and always in the context of a political culture. And the most extreme versions of early post-colonial political life were limited to arguments based on the deeds of opponents, on any ideological and political oppositions.
Only some bootleg, religious and conspiratorial far-right publications, remnants of the junta of colonels, engaged in what we now call character assassination, systematically insulting and continuously blackmailing politicians, businessmen and public figures with alleged revelations of any extramarital affairs or distinct sexual preferences. . However, they remained marginal with almost zero influence, although spermology and slander always found fertile ground for growth in our small-bitter country.
“Aurianism“
A major dissonance in that informal agreement of political culture was the publication in the mid-1980s of the populist “Avrianis”, by the forgiven Giorgos Kouris, who declared himself a defender of popular interests and did not swear to anything.
With idiosyncratic writing, tight-rope sentences and logical leaps, he exposed persons and forces, unabashedly made non-existent accusations, claiming the role of popular judge and potentially punisher. Distinguished figures of politics, business, letters, art and culture were systematically and organized dragged away from the circle of Arianism, which, it is true, found receptive ears in Greek society and received, if not official, certainly informal support, from Andreas Papandreou and his party, which he later paid dearly when George Kouris turned against him in exactly the same way he had treated his opponents.
It was then that the culture and the “art” of character assassination was basically formed, which unfortunately, almost half a century later, continues to accompany the country’s political life. The truth is that since then many have been tempted to use versions of Arianism.
Grylakis, Mavrikis and Aristides Alafouzou’s check
At the beginning of the 90s, Constantinos Mitsotakis, the victim of this specific cycle of political sabotage and abuse, initially wanted to set up a network to repel such versions of political blackmail. And indeed in the years of his government between 1990-93 he built a strong network of friends and supporters, which despite the bad experiences he was surrounded by, in addition to editorial forces, and almost parastatal ex-military, policemen and sycophants, who took refuge in equivalents of Arianism methods.
They organized wiretapping, informally took initiatives to manage critical domestic and national affairs, set up cases even at the expense of friendly forces and, as happens in these cases of uncontrolled and extra-institutional action, exposed and irreparably exposed the official authorities and the then prime minister himself. Everyone remembers the unrecognizable and problematic action of Grylakis and Mavrikis, which led to the conflict with the publisher of “Kathimerini” Aristides Alafouzos, who, in order to protect himself, was forced, on the eve of the 1993 elections, to show the check of two million dollars he had offered help to Konstantinos Mitsotakis and sent him literally unread…
A lot of time has passed since then. The Greek economy and society experienced days of prosperity and progress, but also great destruction. The international financial crisis of 2008 found our country unarmored, over-indebted and vulnerable, unable to withstand with its own forces the exclusion from the international markets and the debt crisis that followed it. He needed the help of his European partners to avoid a catastrophic bankruptcy, which nevertheless imposed the great sacrifice of dependence on memoranda and the compulsory policy of violent internal devaluation, which changed everything, exhausted the hitherto ruling parties, changing them even more the practices, as well as the manners of conducting political contests.
The overdevelopment of social media and the multitasking nephew
From 2010 onwards, with the tolerance it is true of the rising Left, but also of the Far Right, which was strengthened in those circumstances, the spirit of Arianism blossomed again, character assassinations were reborn, unrestrained populism strengthened versions of violence in the streets and political life he slipped for a long time into enmity and abuse of persons and forces.
It was also the technological development that changed the communication conditions. The overdevelopment of social media and electronic information multiplied the possibilities of populist approaches, added scope and influence to hostile persons, gave existence to conspiratorial forces and created a new communication condition in the country and in the world.
In 2017, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, rising to the leadership of New Democracy, formed expectations for the rebirth and reconstruction of both his party and political life more broadly. He was favored by both the liberal profile he maintained and the oaths to defend the European democratic acquis that he constantly gave. However, he was accompanied by family traditions. From the outset he tried to build a wide, almost personal, network of friends and supporters, along the lines of the one his father had built between 1990-93. Which took shape when he diligently organized the successful, as it turned out, anti-SYRIZA front. Various persons and many disparate forces were then coordinated.
By winning the 2019 elections he expanded it to the maximum extent. He now had more means and tools at his disposal. A central role in this development of the widest network of friends and supporters was played by the versatile nephew of Mr. Grigoris Dimitriadiswho, among other things, was also distinguished by the peculiarity of controlling everything. It is widely known that Mr. Dimitriadis wanted to know the activities and vulnerability of critical actors, political, economic and social. The Maximus Palace circle attributed it to his creeping tendency towards social gossip, but this proved not to be the case.
The wiretapping scandal remains a sore point
According to those in the know, such was his obsession with controlling everything that at some point, at the very beginning of his duties at the Maximos Mansion, he even claimed contact with persons who were moving in the periphery of the terrorist activity.
Somehow, from this sick and absolutely undemocratic obsession and mood, he was led to his choice Condoleontoa controversial security guard, for the position of the head of the EYP, with the known results. The wiretapping scandal remains a lingering wound for Mr. Mitsotakis and his circle, it has literally marked his six-year term.
At the same time, the network of friends and supporters strengthened, its members multiplied and the most consistent of Mr. Mitsotakis’ propagandists enjoyed money and possibilities. A wide circle of friendly forces, small and large media owners, solved chronic problems, others built careers they never imagined and some saw their fortunes soar from the consistent and undisturbed month-to-month sponsorships of government and private business schemes, also connected with the network of friends and supporters.
The spider attack network does not discriminate
The unfortunate thing is that this whole extensive network does not amount to anything, not even to the neo-democratic executives. Anyone who puts pressure on the Mitsotakis government in a rudimentary way faces insults, slander and in any case malicious comments on an organized basis. Like a spider web of insult and slander spreading over the country.
The particular network came to attribute the Costas Karamanlis as a meat eater patron of grills, without positions and opinions, the Antonis Samaras pejoratively as a Turko-eater because he dared to warn of the dangers arising from the prepared Greek-Turkish rapprochement, the Alexis Tsipras as Zico for simply daring to reappear on the political stage, the burnt-out lady Karystianou as an allegedly tired, but happy and politically aware woman, etc.
And it’s not just them. Anyone who writes anything that attempts to criticize the government is treated as a declared enemy, comes under fire from everywhere on the Internet and risks referrals and negative comments. Typical were the comments faced by those journalists who rushed to investigate the many incidents in the suburb and elsewhere.
It is this version of the modern idiosyncratic “Aurianism”, which has its stamp and signature. As soon as the Maximus Palace gives a signal, infinite fingers of the spider-like network of propaganda and indoctrination spring up to slander, insult and abuse persons and powers. History, however, confirms that the initiators of such schemes themselves fall victim when the fullness of time comes.
#distant
