Archive note: This text comes from the old archive of Nomika Epilekta and is carefully preserved for historical and informational reading.

The incomprehensible and provocative insistence of the investors-traders, that is, the taxi owners, on abolishing every notion of the rule of law, humiliating the institutions and, during the summer period, destroying the other productive classes, within a philosophy of "your death is my life", is not unprecedented, as we have already mentioned in Nomika Epilekta: "The right to strike and the entrepreneurial taxi owners" and "blackmail and guilds". In the past we have experienced many other similar cases.

These specific unlawful mobilizations by the taxi owners are not grounded in reason and, by extension, have no popular support. We point out that the taxi drivers, who are the real workers, disagree with this strike, which is not a strike in substance. It is a lock out.

We are therefore faced with the absurdity of an employer "striking" because his investment does not yield, and in any case because he refuses, in the crudest and most provocative way, to assume his business risk. Perhaps, when he bought the license, he should have foreseen taking out insurance in case it lost value, instead of literally paralyzing the country's social and economic life.

The scale of the injustice committed by these entrepreneurs is determined by the type of their mobilizations, their provocative to vulgar behavior, their asymmetric threats, but above all by their insistence on prolonging the "strike". It should be noted that they themselves say with particular arrogance, "us or them", meaning the Government. In the end, who are these people who want to bring down the Government? Are they the only ones losing their money? Could their stance therefore have a second reading? In other words, are they seeking to bring down the Government for the benefit of the opposition?

For us, ordinary citizens, the phenomenon is not new. The celebrated farmers did the same when they closed the National Roads. Influenced by and imitating the insensitive taxi owners, the residents of Agioi Theodoroi, protesting over a local issue, closed the Athens-Corinth National Road. Their action drove to madness the drivers trapped for 20 kilometers, who had the misfortune to be traveling at that time. When one of those immobilized for hours dared to ask for explanations, the "protesters", with a high democratic spirit and following the example of the taxi owners' bullying, went further and beat him black and blue. The event grew in scale and the Mayor was forced to appear in the media and apologize. For what, one wonders? In such cases, the apology is false and equally provocative to the ordinary citizen who suffers from the lawlessness of whoever happens to be protesting.

To return to the taxi owners, their behavior forms part of the prevailing mentality. The deficit of executive power is certified and universally acknowledged.

We consider Mr. Tentes' proposals inadequate. In this specific case the state should have shown its strength and firmness. As it did in Syntagma Square. Why does it make distinctions? Have the chemical agents perhaps run out?

It is obvious that the protesting investors possess economic power and, by extension, "connections" both in the Government and in the Opposition. The difference is in the flavor. And let the one who understands, understand.