Everything that has come to light in the last 72 hours from the newspaper Parapolitika or the audio and other evidence submitted to a parliamentary committee by businessman Sabi Mioni create the impression that there was a wretched para-state in operation when the previous government was in power.

We read of shady conversations, of efforts to manipulate the judiciary and use state services for partisan advantage, about the targeting of political opponents and murky deals.

All these things have caused great harm to the political system, to institutions, to democracy, and to the state of course.

It is not just that the barrage of damning information has cultivated a generalised contempt for politics in the citizenry.

It is that institutions that are a basic constituent part of democracy and serve as pillars of a Western, European country such as Greece have been gravely injured.

The political system must urgently build up resistances to such practices and clear up the still murky picture of what happened.

It must shed light on all aspects of the recent revelations in such a way that will allow citizens to regain trust in state organs and institutions and in politics in general.

Everyone is not the same, as some would have it.

Greece cannot afford to tolerate the type of practices that are being described in excruciating detail in the media.

Expediting the investigation of this apparent cesspool is integral to defending the basic constituent elements of a functioning democracy.

Everything must come to light now!

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