One of the late Costas Simitis’s most memorable comments, “This is Greece!,” was made in Parliament a few days after the passenger ferry Express Samina sank off Paros, with the loss of 81 lives, on 26 September 2000. For some, this was a declaration of national self-knowledge. Others chose to see it as a mark of indifference and a rejection of government responsibility, an interpretation that was revived in the past few days. Now, a quarter of a century later, after the death of the man who governed Greece for eight years, it is worth examining the landmark declaration in its historical context and over the subsequent years.
In Parliament on the 4th of October 2000, the prime minister was called on to reply to the questions of opposition party leaders, who blamed the government for the shipwreck. Simitis analyzed the problems of the country’s coastal shipping sector, listing the measures that the government had been adopting to improve things. This problem, he noted, was not the only one that the country faced. “Did the problem in Greek coastal shipping suddenly appear? No. It has been there for years, for decades. Greece was always far behind other countries. Just as we don’t have highways, just as we don’t have railways, just as we are far behind in many sectors, we are behind in coastal shipping. Let’s not act surprised when we suddenly see what Greece is. This is Greece! Your Greece, too, and the Greece of others. Everyone’s Greece!” he declared. “A commotion from the New Democracy section” ensued, according to the parliamentary record.
In closing, Simitis challenged the opposition parties to shoulder a share of responsibility for a national effort to improve things. “And if you, who conduct this check on the government, have any responsibility, it is to make clear to Greek society that everyone, from the government to the last sailor, has an obligation to serve the citizen. No one has the duty to stand aside and say, ‘It’s those upstairs who are responsible.’ We are all responsible. And of course, we (the government) have a greater share of responsibility and I acknowledge that,” the prime minister said. “And because we are conscious of this responsibility, we will work to change things. Because we really do want Greece to improve, we want Greece to be a developed country.”
And Greece did change during Simitis’ tenure and in the years that followed. The highway system was improved, major infrastructure works were completed, there was unprecedented prosperity at an individual and national level, the country joined the core of the European Union (the eurozone), it hosted excellent Olympic Games, among many other things. And yet, there could have been more successes, and achievements could have been less fragile, if Simitis’ call had been heeded, if all saw the country’s weaknesses clearly and responsibly, in matters large and small, if all saw it as their business to help solve problems.
The tragedy at Tempe in 2023 showed once again that “from the government to the last sailor” (or last railway employee, in this case), the chain of responsibility and conscientiousness is not a given. Through the years of prosperity (which descended into profligacy and unsustainable debt), through the painful lessons of the crisis, our systemic weaknesses remained intact, supreme, threatening to plunge us into national mourning in the blink of an eye.
“This is Greece!” was not an abdication of responsibility. It was a warning and a rallying cry to be alert and to develop the country.