Entitled ‘Alastair Campbell’s diary: Mitsotakis’ lessons for Sounak – Unlike our PM, Greek leader listens to questions and actually answers them’, he explains how the Prime Minister in Greece differs from his British counterpart.
The British journalist, writer, radio producer, while scheduling interviews for his podcast, “The Rest Is Politics”, met Kyriakos Mitsotakis, regarding whom, as he writes, he did not know much. In fact, he reveals that he wasn’t sure he would like him as much as his co-presenter.
“Quite a privileged background, as his father was prime minister before him – studied in Paris, London and the US, a banker and financier, with the word ‘technocrat’ on almost every profile – and his New Democracy essentially the sister party of Conservatives” he writes.
He continues: “However, when I asked him where he would stand on a scale of UK politics, with Corbyn’s Labor at one end and the Braverman/Farage Tories at the other, he said without hesitation: ‘Right in the middle’.”
“He didn’t hold back on Brexit […] and while he was diplomatic regarding his relationship with Rishi Sunak, talking regarding how important the UK remains to Greece, he was but the latest leader I’ve come across who seems to care far more regarding Keir Starmer than the current Prime Minister » he adds.
“I’m not sure I would be so diplomatic regarding Sounak if I were him… You may remember that, during his visit to London last November, Mitsotakis gave an interview to the BBC, in which he was asked regarding the Elginian Marbles, or the Sculptures of the Parthenon, as the Greeks call them, and said that Greece wants them back so they can be “reunited” with the work of art from which Lord Elgin took them in the early 1800s.”
“The reaction from No 10? They canceled a planned bilateral meeting, which would have been their first, the following day. We’re talking sledgehammer diplomacy!”
“At the time it became clear that just as Boris Johnson and Liz Truss had flaws that made them unfit to be prime ministers, so too did Sunak… irritable, very quick-tempered when things didn’t go his way, unable to understand why people didn’t like him they see as he sees himself. None of these are good qualities for a leader.”
“When his interview with his Greek counterpart comes out, someone has to make Sunak watch it. Mitsotakis listens to the questions and then answers them, instead of rushing through the endlessly repeated “speaks to follow” written by Tory central office, he knows history and tries to apply the lessons from it – he admits his occasional mistakes.”
“When he talks regarding the pressures politicians face, he doesn’t do it to whine regarding his own life, but to express the fear that the best young people will never consider politics as a career, leaving the door open to populists.”
“His attitude to populism – even more than the fact that he knew where Burnley were in the Premier League and wished us well in the game – was the main reason I liked him. He put populism at the center of his governance, warning of its dangers, exposing it, challenging it, defeating it, rather than, as Sunak unfortunately tried to do, accepting it and swimming in the murky, ultimately self-destructive and the country, its waters. Anti-populism, he suggests, must become a real political force.”
“I’m sure if I had more time than the hour-long interview and a very enjoyable dinner, I might find some fault, and, certainly, although he’s quite to the left of Sunak, he’s to my right on some big issues. But, my goodness, it was refreshing to have a long, detailed interview with a “conservative” politician who never once said “I was very clear”… “that’s not the question you should be asking”… “that’s not what I hear from people when I’m out and regarding…” and who, instead of constantly bragging regarding what he’s done, tried to explain what he’s trying to do now and in the future and why.”
[…] Please, Sunak’s team, in the interest of politics and democracy… make him listen and learn,” he concludes.
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#Colleague #Blair #Sunak #listen #Greek #Prime #Minister #learn
