It put the dictatorship and the flawed state that emerged in the wake of civil war behind us.
It took its first steps as part of a democratic United Europe.
It overcame the crises of 1985 and 1989-1990.
It modernized itself and joined Europe’s Monetary Union.
It lived through the trauma of the 2010 bankruptcy.
It endured the years of the Memoranda and avoided relegation to a lower division.
It rebuilt its stability and normality.
Today, it is the best democracy Greece has ever had, and one of the most complete in the world.
With “our little squabbles”, of course, as well as moments we can be proud of.
And do you know why? Because every time we found ourselves on the brink, our citizens rallied to protect it. Because they stood tall against every danger and pushed back against every threat.
Because ours was, and I hope remains, a Democracy that’s ready to defend itself when it has to.
Though it may have less confidence in itself than it should. And certainly with more thoughtless chatter than it needs.
But that’s who we are. And that’s why I pay no heed to the lamentations over a changing world, or the wailing and gnashing of teeth over how far Greece abides by the rule of law.
The changing world is taking us along with it. We just need to understand it and adapt to the changes it brings.
No one is truly calling our democratic foundations into question, and they are certainly under no real threat.
We have lived through difficult times. We have left outdated ideologies behind us. We have survived destructive ideological obsessions and futile conflicts. We have got passed the Sirens and escaped the Cyclops, to borrow some imagery from a recent big screen release.
We have progressed because society demanded something better.
And because that is precisely what a fighting Democracy does. It knows how to tackle threats, even if it doesn’t always see them coming.
It may be pushed off course, but it doesn’t run aground.
It may waver, hesitate, divide and regress but, when a critical juncture is reached, it will always discover unexpected reserves of energy and love for all that we’ve achieved.
I hold that night of July 23, 1974 deep within me. The night when Democracy returned, though we could not know then what the dawn would bring, nor what would follow or even what it was we were living through.
It did not occur to us that democracy is a journey, not a moment.
But after half a century and then some, I can say with certainty that the journey’s been thrilling. We are lucky to have lived it.
And that the “Democracy of the Greeks” was and remains a fighting Democracy that will join battle when duty calls.
