Galery

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So the West is just at the gate of a great migration of peoples. The nearest region where this happens is the area of Islam ranging all the way from Morocco to Afghanistan and harbouring 1.6 billion people. Meanwhile, in Europe itself the Muslim population amounts to 6-8% of the population, and their number is increasing rapidly. The clash of civilizations is an inevitable consequence of this. The terrorist act in Paris fits within this context. The West has huge firepower and can erase the Islamic State, which foments these attacks, from the face of the earth. The Western powers have proven their fighting ability against the regimes of the Taliban and of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. In their place, however, other, even more barbaric types of violence, have sprung up. The West cannot erase a population of 1.6 billion people from the face of the earth. The problem cannot possibly be solved with an all-out war of the West against Islam, as they did at the time of the Crusades, nor by perpetuating the failed policy of assimilating Muslim communities in the societies of Europe.

The issue with Islam will keep shaking western societies over many years, and it has the potential to destroy them. Most likely, it will alter the foundations of the western way of life. It might distort the foundations of democracy, open society and free markets, which created the prerequisites for the prosperity of Europe in recent decades.

Recent polls show that conservative xenophobic parties in Europe, which want the restoration of borders and dismantling of the common currency, the euro, are gaining momentum. The disintegration of the European Union, however, will reduce the possibilities of coping with the trends. Instead, the solution lies in further consolidation.

These enormous historical challenges have gripped tiny Greece amidst one of the fiercest economic, political and social crises during the 200 years of existence of its modern state. The world collapses, and we keep preoccupying ourselves with how 50-year-old pensioners could continue to receive their pensions, or how bribe-hungry doctors, corrupt politicians and government officials could perpetuate their parasitic life in the name of an already waning prosperity obtained on credit. After PASOK and New Democracy, SYRIZA represents the hardest core of Greek confusion and decline. An awakening is forthcoming, and it will make itself palpable in a rather painful way.