In the “extremely urgent” directive that the president of the Supreme Court, Ioanna Klapa, has issued to all the first-instance court administrations across Greece, she stresses their “obligation to designate judges for urgent trial cases on weekends and public holidays, ensuring they are available at all times to carry out their duties.” The same applies to investigative magistrates and court presidents.
For the president of the Supreme Court to react in this way, it means the situation had probably gotten out of hand. This is how the 45-year-old driver of the Porsche on Crete avoided arrest and continued his wild driving, eventually slamming head-on into another car, killing its 22-year-old driver. Traffic police had previously stopped him twice in 24 hours and confirmed he had been driving drunk, but somehow had not arrested him. It was the weekend. The fatal accident happened in Hania, but it could have been any other region of Greece. Besides, driving under the influence of alcohol or psychotropic substances is not limited to Crete. It also seems that the fast-track process (which allows a swift hearing if an arrest is made within 48 hours of an alleged crime) is not really functioning on certain days throughout the country. Just as pressures, subtle or intense, are exerted by and on public officials throughout the country.
I was recently made aware of a nightmarish reality on Crete that is partly known, but almost normalized in its entirety. Readers confess that “as soon as I moved to Crete the first thing they told me was, ‘Don’t honk your horn at a pickup truck.’” A friend recounted an incident years ago in the city of Rethymno: “A drunk driver with his whole family who had just come from a wedding party ran into us. He was assisted by locals in fleeing, leaving the car on the side of the road. The next day the policeman called me and told me that ‘unfortunately I can’t do anything to him – I received phone calls from five ministers and 10 MPs… His car was uninsured.’” Another person told me about horrible stories of extortion from the village of Zoniana (a notorious crime enclave), with the knowledge, of course, of local politicians.
I felt sick. Yes, the problems is not just with Crete. Corruption and overt violence exist elsewhere too. But it’s a shame that a region with so many dynamic, sometimes rowdy (like Pavlos Polakis), and very talkative MPs doesn’t raise the flag of reform. It is a shame that they don’t set themselves as role models instead of observers or recorders of local demands.
And what will happen to the votes? Well, we have to agree that some of them are not worth it.