Former Greek Foreign Minister Theodore Pangalos passed away at eighty four years old. He served under Prime Minister Costas Simitis. Pangalos will be associated with bringing Greece back under Washington’s strict influence.
He will be associated with the turnover of Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan to the Turks and reversing Greece’s hitherto pro Serbian stance in the balkans. As Christians, we pray for the memories of those who repose.
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2 replies on “Former Greek Foreign Minister Passes”
Pangalos is emblematic of the Greek political leadership of the past. They impoverished Greece with endless deficit spending and hid their deeds behind a continually depreciating Drachma. Greek entry into the Eurozone and usage of the EURO currency brought it all to the surface and forced Greece to rapidly reform government institutions in a couple of years-which should have been done progressively over decades and far less painfully. If not for the discipline forced by the Eurozone the nonsensical deficit spending would have continued-and the standard of living of Greeks would have continued to drop. I don’t like to speak badly of those recently deceased, but it’s revealing to me that with Greek entry into the EZ many Greek political leaders of the past left public office. It was great for them while it lasted, less so for average Greeks. Pangalos had charisma, but he represents a political class in Greece that is no longer relevant post-EZ.
All of what you say is true but Pangalos was also treacherous. He spoke like a nationalist but contributed to the subjugation of Greece to western interests. His tenure as Foreign Minister was a disaster politically as it was economically. He and Simitis surrendered Ocalan to the Turks. A disgraceful and shameful act.
The Kurds are a people with whom Greece has much in common. The inability of Greece to form alliances with those of common interests, and the Greek establishment’s pursuit of policies that Washington approves of has contributed heavily to the problems that Greece has today.