ATHENS, 1 APRIL 2020. LETTER FROM THE SECRETARY-GENERAL ON THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC.

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Athens, 1 April 2020

To All attached recipients

(Please find below enclosed full text in PDF file)

Dear Colleagues and Partners,

We address this letter to all of you, in this period of the terrible pandemic that swept the entire world and threatens our lives and our economies, our culture and development. We use the expression “war against coronavirus” in order to indicate the intensity of the problem and the conflict, the asymmetric threat and the need for address it effectively.

This compulsory break we are faced with enables all of us, to reflect on the principles and values dominating our lives, but also the ways in which we have managed policies, for the prevalence of our values. The entire society is struggling nowadays for the salvation of our fellow human beings, as well as to prevent impoverishment of others, knowing that a catastrophic does not affect everyone equally.

After all, it revealed the weaknesses of the social protection system. The current crisis has shown, that each action of ours has impacts on the others, and that, simply means that we need each other. The fact that some of us are more or less at risk than others does not mean that we have less or greater responsibility for the way the situation is progressing in which we live and decide and the resolution of the crisis.

Thus, we are called to defend the honor and reputation of all of us, claiming now the principles and values, the degradation of which we have allowed in the name of some other initiatives, tolerating the weakening of the weak and strengthening the strong.

We are reflecting today on the importance of our common values, but also on the fundamental fake ultimately dilemma ahead of which, we gradually found ourselves: Economy or Society. We recast the need to trust human beings, science and institutions, but also to understand how fragile, vulnerable and valuable life is.

The first challenge, in the case of the current crisis, is what we generally and vaguely call “public health.” The father of Medicine, Hippocrates, through ancient Greek history, reminds us that “It is impossible for a person to know Medicine who does not know exactly what a person is”. The main responsibility for getting out of the core of this crisis lies with the doctors and the nursing staff. However, each of us, politicians, parliamentarians, women and men, can contribute to the management and resolution of the crisis and ultimately assume the responsibility that belongs to it. The starting point for this effort is to strengthen and support public health and security systems.

We live in an interconnected and globalized world. History shows that every crisis is an opportunity to deepen our cooperation. to protect our citizens. To redefine the network of relationships in which we live and decide. To strengthen our parliamentary institutions as places of convergence of different views and to safeguard our democratic achievements.

To successfully do it all together, not to be left behind is a challenge. We are called to work for a vision, for a new relationship between the economy, politics and society. We, parliamentarians, are called upon to highlight solidarity. With these thoughts, we extend warm greetings to everyone and to all fellow Christian colleagues, partners and friends we wish “Happy Easter”.

Yours Sincerely,

The Secretary General

Dr. Andreas Michailidis

Member of the Hellenic Parliament

Athens, 1 April 2020. Letter from the Secretary-General on the coronavirus pandemic.