Anna Triandafyllidou is Professor (part-time) at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy and Senior Research Fellow at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP). She is currently on leave...

Last night Mr Pretenteris, a well known Greek TV journalist, hosted in his political talk show some key exponents of the Socialist party (PASOK), New Democracy (the right wing party in opposition), SYRIZA, a smaller left wing party and LAOS, a small extreme right wing party, together with the president of the national power company (DEH) workers' union, Mr. Fotopoulos. A  former PASOK-bred trade unionist, Mr. Fotopoulos, now fiercely opposing the government's plan for semi-privatising DEH, was verbally attacked during the talk show but the representatives of New Democracy (Mr. Panayiotopoulos) and LAOS (Mr. Voridis) and even by Mr. Pretenderis himself.

He was asked to explain to the citizens why DEH is on strike, why the country faces hourly power interruptions (because of the strike) and he is up in arms, when the government's plan is to keep the company under public management (the government's plan is to keep the ownership of approx. 30% of DEH's shares compared to the current 51% but also to keep the company under public management). Interestingly, Mr. Chryssochoidis of PASOK had to do no talking as all was said an even if politely at the same time quite strongly by the main opposition parties (with the exception of SYRIZA who is also against the government's plan). Actually when eventually Mr Chryssochoidis talked it was mainly to praise Mr Fotopoulos career as a trade union activist and as an honest man.

Indeed it was clear that Mr Chryssochoidis was trying to soften Mr Fotopoulos and his trade union for the interest of the government and the bill to be voted while in reality many people (including myself) would share the view that Mr Fotopoulos is one of the worse examples of trade unionists that Greece has to give. A person that made politics his job and that has continuously threatened to black-out the country whenever he felt that any government was threatening DEH's monopoly and the trade union's rule within it. Always in the name of the people and of cheap power (that is actually not so cheap, while service is often poor) he has been blackmailing one government after another.

However, yesterday's talk was very interesting not because it exposed Mr Fotopoulos and his union's selfish behaviour. It is nothing new in the way Greek trade unions behave - they will fight till the last privilege - interpreted as a fundamental workers' right - while the ship (the country, that is) is... shinking (we have seen this of course in the case of the privatisation of the national airline, Olympic Airways. The company was eventually privatised, despite the strikes and the shouting of the trade unions, and its former staff got very good deals, at the expense of the tax payer's pocket - but none seems to remember this any more!). What is new is this transversal tacit alignment of 'left wing' (PASOK, in goverment) and 'right wing' (New Democracy and LAOS, in opposition) forces towards some important reforms.

Could this hide some maturing of the idea that in the present circumstances the political parties need to carve some common solutions and support them together? could it be the end of the world as we know it? and the dawn of some hope for Greek citizens that their elites are talking sense?

The Eurogroup President Jean Claude Juncker urged last night Greece to reinvigorate its efforts to slash spending, sell assets and improve tax collection. He also called for the two main Greek political parties, the Socialists in government and the Conservatives in the opposition, to get together and discuss the crucial battles that lie ahead and find some reasonable compromise. Juncker was quite emphatic to say that while the Eurozone will continue to show 'solidarity' to Greece, the Greeks have to show solidarity with one another.

Although the Eurozone's solidarity is paid very dearly by the Greek citizens and their taxes - there is no such thing as a free lunch, is there? - Juncker is right to point out that the Greeks appear undeserving of other Europeans' solidarity when they cannot get their act together and find some common ground.

It was only the day before yesterday when Yanis Varoufakis (www.yanisvaroufakis.com ) called upon the Prime Minister to refuse any new loans unless these come with a substantial restructuring of the economic governance of the Eurozone. Whether right or wrong in his view on how Greece and Europe can get out of this financial crisis, Yanis had one point: the Greek Prime Minister has to exert one of his important abilities: his ability to talk to people in a simple and direct way, sharing some empathy with them. George Papandreou has to speak to the people, Varoufakis suggests, but not on his own. He has to take his former high school class mate and current leader of the main opposition party, Andonis Samaras, with him.

Indeed one wonders aren't the Greek political elites ashamed? is it possible that the citizens are drowning under continuous tax increases and a galopping unemployment rate and they the political parties (at least the two main ones) cannot just find some common ground to face the crisis?  The debt won't disappear overnight no matter how hard we wish it. Some courageous decisions need to be taken (one or the other direction) and society has to mobilise - not so much to protest but also to avoid the currently rising civil disobedience!

Instead of speaking frankly and openly to one another - as it seems that the Irish and Portuguese elites are doing - the Greek elites are paralysed in their own concerns for power (the opposition party) or in their belief that they can make it on their own (the Socialists). But they cannot continue hiding behind cheap justifications of the kind: We (the gov/nt) asked them to come to talk but they did not participate, or we (the opposition) cannot support the measures taken by the government because they did not consult us first - (actually the new leader of the New Democracy party seems to believe that because they ousted from the party a couple of its most corrupt members and since the former Prime Minister has gone home, they have now no responsibility any more for where the country stands - it was not 'them' who led the country where it is now!?). One actually wonders sometimes whethere it will be the Greek economy or the Greek political system to collapse first!?

Italy is giving a message of hope to Europe with its solidarity towards the immigrants and asylum seekers fleeing Tunisia and Libya that continue to arrive on Lampedusa's shores. There have been numerous accounts of the altruism and solidarity shown by the inhabitants of the tiny island, south of Sicily, and by the coastguard and police officers who have assisted and literally rescued men, women and children at risk of drowning at sea or even near the island's shores.

The stories are numerous: the young Nigerian pregnant woman who lost her baby at the crossing but was able to find her husband with the assistance of a social worker: http://www.corriere.it/cronache/11_maggio_20/storia-jennifer-cavallaro_1c07cbc8-82ed-11e0-baac-f3bedd074966.shtml?fr=correlati

or the night of 8 May 2011 when 500 immigrants were literally rescued from drowning: http://www.cri.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/IT/IDPagina/7823

Perhaps this is the best answer to the continuous rise of the extreme right wing parties in many EU countries. An answer made by actions not by words.

Πολύ ενδιαφέροντα και κριτικά άρθρα για την νέα κρίση που περνάει η Αθήνα. Ο Θάνος Μαρούκης στην ΚΑΘΗΜΕΡΙΝΗ της 17 Μαϊου:

Δύσκολα συγκρατούνται πλέον οι πράξεις αυτοδικίας ορισμένων ομάδων Ελλήνων που αποφασίζουν να πάρουν τον νόμο στα χέρια τους. Από τα έκτροπα της Κερατέας και το «Κίνημα Δεν Πληρώνω» που εισβάλλει στην τροχαία, μέχρι τις επιθέσεις ακροδεξιών στην ευρύτερη περιοχή του Αγ. Παντελεήμονα και της πλατείας Αττικής. Η δολοφονία στη γωνία Ηπείρου και 3ης Σεπτεμβρίου της 10ης Μαΐου ανοίγει πλέον τον «δρόμο της οργής» που έχει δρομολογηθεί, όπως φαίνεται και από το κυνήγι μεταναστών που εξαπολύει η Χρυσή Αυγή. Το θέμα είναι όμως ότι με πογκρόμ και διωγμούς δεν λύνεται το συγκεκριμένο κοινωνικό πρόβλημα. Η συνέχεια εδώ... ΚΑΘΗΜΕΡΙΝΗ

και ο Διονύσης Γουσσέτης επίσης στην ΚΑΘΗΜΕΡΙΝΗ της 17 Μαϊου:

Οι δύο φόνοι της περασμένης εβδομάδας, του 44χρονου Ελληνα και του 21χρονου μετανάστη ως εκδίκηση, έδωσαν ακόμη μία φορά την ευκαιρία να ξαναδούμε σε δράση το δίπολο «ακροδεξιοί» και «ακροαριστεροί». Οι δύο αυτές ομάδες εμφανίζονται αντίθετες, αλλά ταυτίζονται πλήρως σε καίρια ζητήματα, όπως ο αντισημιτισμός, ο αντικαπιταλισμός, ο αντιδυτικισμός. Οπως όλες οι αντίθετες ακραίες ιδεολογίες, αλληλοτροφοδοτούνται. Καθεμία διευκολύνει τη στρατολόγηση μελών από την άλλη. Για παράδειγμα, οι «φίλοι των μεταναστών» της Υπατίας οδήγησαν -με τη βοήθεια του ΣΥΝ- τους μετανάστες σε μια πύρρειο νίκη. Κέρδισαν τη μη απέλαση, αλλά εμφανίστηκαν τόσο αντιπαθείς στα μάτια των πολιτών, που συσπείρωσαν κάποιους πολίτες στην ακροδεξιά. Το ίδιο είχε καταφέρει η ακροαριστερά και στον Αγ. Παντελεήμονα.

Είναι πραγματικά αξιοσημείωτο όταν αυτές οι απόψεις φιλοξενούνται σε εφημερίδες μεγάλης κυκλοφορίας ενώ μέχρι πριν λίγους μήνες δημοσιεύονταν μονο στην ΑΥΓΗ ή στο ιστολόγιο του ΕΛΙΑΜΕΠ. Δείχνει κατι ίσως για την ωρίμανση των καιρών;