One and a half years ago, when I was a guest of the Athens Democracy Forum, I spoke at this very place about the need to defend the values that constitute the foundations of liberal democracy, which is perhaps the most important invention of Europeans. I used a quote from “The Peloponnesian War” about the situation in Corcyra because I was struck by the similarity of the past and present situation, as well as by the repetitiveness of certain mechanisms in the history of our civilisation. Thucydides wrote about disorder resulting from political passions and a constant escalation of internal conflicts, where agreement was not possible because the creators of chaos arbitrarily changed the meaning of words, while values were being reversed. I also wanted to use a quote describing Athens in a time of plague, but it seemed to me too detached from contemporary reality. After all, plagues belong to a remote past, I thought. And because Pericles, the founder of democracy died in the plague, I decided that it was perhaps too gloomy to mention it.

It was only eighteen months ago, the eighteen months that shook the world, during which history rapidly accelerated. The pandemic turned everything upside down, our world and our habits. But it did not invalidate the question about the future of democracy. Quite the opposite, it only made it even more relevant, as it also made us aware of the scale of threats, not only those related to health and economy, but also of those of a strictly political nature.

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