Mr. Tasoulas even invoked two sayings to emphasize the importance of protecting the Democracy: “In politics, usually what doesn’t excite us is the right thing and what is right doesn’t excite us. Also what some fight in politics they fight because they see it as it is, while what they defend they defend because they see it as they would like it to be”. And the reason for referring to them is, as he said, “because they show how vulnerable Democracy can be against the demagoguery of populism, against voluntarism. Democracy wants both ambition and vision, but it also wants you to be realistic and down-to-earth.”
Subsequently, the President of the Parliament referred with emphasis to the tragedy of Cyprus, noting that “seven years intervened, seven years of oppression, seven years of dictatorship, seven years which led to the well-known results which brought Cyprus to where it is today, after the Turkish atrocity of invasion, in possession. The only European country that is still in possession of more than a third of its territory.”
Mr. Tasoulas underlined the role of Constantinos Karamanlis in the struggle for the restoration of the Republic, characterizing him as a “protagonist of the Post-Revolution”. As he pointed out, “he was sworn in here in the Parliament, in the Entewktirion, at four and a quarter in the morning of July 24th. He took the oath alone at a time when the existing threats of a generalized conflict with Turkey were enormous and internal chaos prevailed. And while the regime is catalyzing itself under the burden of the national disaster it caused in the martyred Cyprus, at the same time the political world assumed the responsibilities of governing the country in a power vacuum”. And he added: “Think what responsibilities, at the risk of being accused of national treason, they assumed in the unknown. Karamanlis then came in the darkness, in the darkness his first 10 ministers were sworn in and slowly they turned this darkness into light, because they loved responsibility and seized it and turned it into perspective and progress for the country”.
The President of the Parliament underlined the precious legacy of today’s anniversary, stressing that today “our potential is inexhaustible, just as the pioneers of the Republic had inexhaustible potential, as long as our disagreements and objections are accompanied by responsibility”. In fact, he made a relevant mention in the article by P. Palaiologos in Vima on Sunday, November 17, 1974, entitled “I vote therefore I exist”.
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