“The most powerful force against tyranny is not just laws or agreements – they are the people who care”
Spikes on the recent government’s recent measures for asylum was formulated by George Papandreou In his address on Sunday in Skiathos, opening the discussions of the 27th Symi Symposium.
“Unfortunately, even here in Greece, the government is taking unconstitutional, unacceptable measures, believing that refugees is resolved by refusing to refuse and” militarization “of the border,” the former prime minister said, noting that And he comes from a refugee family.
As Mr Papandreou noted “What we live in is not accidental. They are symptoms of a systemic failure-the result of an uncontrolled global capitalism, over-concentration of wealth, erosion of public interest and weakening of political institutions. “ proposing in response to deepening and expanding democracy. “Against this authoritarian slide, the answer cannot be less democracy. It must be more democracy. And more humanity. “
“Let us remember: The most powerful power against tyranny is not just the laws or agreements-are the people who care. ‘Man who dares to stand together and say:
We can build another future, “he said, adding that” in a fragmented world, where frustration, fear, insecurity, even hate and rage circulate, what we will do here these days-in Skiathos, may be the most radical act. To feel together. To imagine again. “
Welcome to the participants at this year’s Symi Symposium, he thanked the host Mayor Skiathos, Thodoris Tzouma, our volunteers, as well as the associates and scholars of the Agora Project – Young Chinese from various parts of the world in Skiathos.
The former prime minister put the great challenges of the time at the center of this year’s meeting: the rise of authoritarianism, the climate crisis, the social inequalities, the technology without morality and the humanitarian disasters worldwide. He spoke of global authoritarian folding, where “rights are rendered, freedoms are shrinking, disagreement is criminalized. In this phenomenon, the answer may not be less, but more democracy – and more humanity. “As he said.
“And yet, we’re here this year and why we’re worried.
We are worried about the climate crisis – caused by an economy based on fossil fuels and literally makes our planet burn. Here in Skiathos we feel it: droughts, fire warnings, a fragile pressure ecosystem.
We are concerned about the galloping inequalities that erode our democracies. Where a new oligarchy occupies institutions, erodes trust, disperses misinformation and silence the disagreement.
We are concerned about technologies without morality.
We are worried, frightened, disgusting the barbarism, the dark side of mankind that degrades lives, dignity and future-in the Middle East, every day in Gaza, in the Civil Wide in Sudan, in the endless night bombings in Ukraine.
This year’s Symposium is held in a worldwide wave of authoritarianism-lifting or blatant, silent or rushing. In the whole world, rights are besieged. Freedoms are receding. The disagreement is criminalized.
And the scapegoats are everywhere – immigrants, minorities, vulnerable – accused of not causing crises, “the former prime minister said.