A corruption scandal is rocking Greece’s government and several high-ranking government officials have resigned. But this is nothing new. Corruption is everywhere, not only in Greece’s government but in any institution on the planet that deals in power, influence or money.
What caught my attention, however, was the replacement of one official, Makis Voridis, who has been implicated in this latest scandal and who stepped down from his post as Greece’s Minister for Migration and Asylum.
Replacing Voridis is Thanos Plevris, a politician from the extreme right wing who is on the record as saying that Greece must be made to be like “hell” for immigrants, which will ultimately serve as a deterrent, he claims.
He said there was no border security without victims, adding that “border protection needs deaths.”
Before joining New Democracy, Plevris was a member of the far-right Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS) political party. The word “Orthodox” in the title of that party refers to the religion. Yes, as in Orthodox Christian. Yes, this Orthodox Christian said it would be OK to kill people crossing the border.
Perhaps he missed that commandment that said “Thou Shalt Not Kill.” It’s a basic tenet of his Orthodox faith.
But there’s more. This man, who waves the Orthodox flag and claims that his faith is a big part of his identity, has shared more ideas and beliefs that would probably make Jesus Christ, himself, afraid to come out of his tomb when the time for Resurrection came.
If migrants and asylum seekers do make it across the Greek border, Plevris believes “They should get no social security, no food, no drink and no access to the health system. They have to have it even worse than in their own countries.”
Perhaps Mr. Plevris should go back to Sunday School.
At least in the Greek Orthodox Church that I attended, one of the first things I remember learning was the well-known, but often overlooked verse from the Gospel of Matthew:
“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”
The hypocrisy of men like Plevris is dumbfounding. But what’s worse is the irony.
It’s laughable to listen to a politician like Plevris, from a country like Greece, that has seen millions of its own citizens forced to migrate — legally and illegally over the years, to all corners of the earth.
Imagine if Germany, or Australia, or the United States had Mr. Plevris’ positions implemented when millions of Greeks arrived as immigrants in those countries, not to mention dozens of others throughout the world. Imagine if armed American border agents were stationed at U.S. ports in the 1940s and 50s when thousands of Greek men entered the country illegally as ship jumpers.
Mr. Plevris is on the record with these beliefs and statements that prove not only the rejection of the basic tenets of the faith he claims to espouse, but also his deep lack of awareness of his own nation’s history.
The appointment of such an individual, whose core is one of hypocrisy and ignorance, is a troubling move by Greece’s Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
