Democratic Pride

In Greece the political cycle has turned with the election of a New Democracy government under the leadership of Kyriakos Mitsotakis. I am happily now a former civil servant and ex-diplomat, so can comment on such things. In my professional career, I saw two changes of Government in Britain, in 1997 and 2010; and beyond that two changes of Prime Minister, in 2007 and 2016. In 1997, I was the head of the private office of a junior Minister in the Department for Education and Employment and in 2010, I was the Principal Private Secretary of the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. In those roles, the impact of political change was exciting, challenging and very direct; our effectiveness as civil servants rested on our demonstrated neutrality: on our capacity to work equally effectively with one governing party one day and a new governing party the next. It was always fun, and a lot of hard work. New Ministers and their aides had to be understood, new priorities learned, new ways of working absorbed.

Things were not so dissimilar as a diplomat, though changes in foreign governments have more of an indirect impact on a diplomat’s work. In the EU Council of Ministers in Brussels in 1998-2002, I saw frequent Ministerial changes around the table, some of them more significant than others – I certainly won’t forget the political brouhaha that followed the formation of an Austrian government after the Austrian elections of October 1999. And in Athens in 2015, I saw the coming to power of the SYRIZA-ANEL government after the January elections of that year. That was an immensely busy time for my embassy, as we got to know Ministers who had almost all of them never served in government before and who had a radically different approach from their predecessors. 

Diplomats and civil servants in the British system have to work with whichever government is in power, irrespective of their personal views.  For me, as I guess for most of my former colleagues, this always meant a rather dispassionate and analytical approach: trying to understand manifestos, policies, points of commonality, personalities. Part of this process was an attempt to map and understand what changes an incoming government would make to its predecessor’s policies (domestic and international) and to the body of national law. 

It will be very interesting, to say the least, to see how Prime Minister Mitsotakis’ government will differ from its predecessor, not only in its intentions (which we already know in part, through the election process) but also in the programme it actually carries out. With a new government what doesn’t get changed is often as interesting as what does. Irrespective of political rivalries, very few governments try to change all of their predecessors’ innovations. Society itself is always on the move. 

'Pride in OFGEM', July 2019

In London this weekend, the LGBT community and our friends were celebrating the end of Pride month, with the annual parade in central London. On Friday, I had the pleasure of talking at the Pride event of OFGEM (the UK energy regulator) to a large group of LGBT staff and their straight allies. I had been invited to reflect on the impact of being gay on my professional career. It was fun to do this and among much else I was able to recall one of the most moving events of my career: addressing Athens Pride in 2015 in Klafthmonos Square. On that day, the SYRIZA-ANEL government had earlier announced its intention to legislate in Greece for civil partnerships among same-sex couples. This was a long overdue reform, and its confirmation certainly added to the party atmosphere and the natural optimism of the event. 

Athens Pride, June 2015

Four years later, civil partnership (the ‘σύμφωνο συμβίωσης’) is an accepted reality for same-sex couples in Greece. This is in line with European norms and European values, and I expect it to endure in Greece as a legacy from SYRIZA that has been broadly accepted across the mainstream parties. (The fact that it is underpinned by ECHR jurisprudence also helps.)

Well, it is good when we see our liberal democratic values of inclusion, diversity, equality increasingly entrenched across our European societies. We should have pride in the capacity of our democracies to advance in this direction, whether in Greece, the UK or elsewhere. There are, regrettably, many voices at the moment challenging the ideals of liberal democracy and even representative democracy itself. But the Greek experience of the last decade suggests that we should be optimistic. After all of the challenges that the Greek people have faced, parliamentary democracy has proved strong and resilient in Greece. Throughout the crisis, governments have come and gone, in more or less orderly fashion; and the ballot box has remained triumphant. And despite the economic pressures and challenges from the fringes of political life, Greek parliamentary democracy has continued, not least through the reform of civil partnership, to move in a socially liberal direction. This could not and should not be taken for granted – either in Greece or in any country in Europe. But the Greek experience is particularly inspiring. Let us always hope for more! 

I wish the new government of Mr Mitsotakis and the new leader of the official opposition, Mr Tsipras, all good luck in carrying out their new responsibilities. 

John