Diary of an election

Saturday, May 5, 6pm (BST)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/greece/9237825/The-future-of-Greece-diary-of-an-election.html

Driving back to Athens from the central city Volos yesterday reminded me how much can be learned about a country from its roads.

As we proceeded on the E-75 motorway at close to the speedlimit of 120 km/h, drivers passed by at 140 km/h and more, not wearing seatbelts.

Slower traffic moved half into the hard shoulder to allow others to pass. Gypsies drove pick-up trucks piled high with kitchen towels, headed for a market somewhere, presumably.

Greeks have always a practiced a liberal interpretation of road rules. There is a national law requiring the wearing of seat belts, which is treated as strictly optional by many drivers. Owners of new cars who don’t want to be bothered by incessant beeping from their vehicles warning system simply buckle in their belt then sit on it.

The other day a Greek journalistic colleague confronted a car coming towards him the wrong way down a fairly narrow one-way road. A discussion ensued, during which the other driver protested that he was in the right because “there is no need for the road to be one-way”.

Coming from a land of natural obedience, I always found this disregard for rulebooks rather endearing, but of course in light of the national financial calamity it has a more sombre tone.

Rule-bending by Greek government – to which the EU turned a blind eye – brought the country to the verge of disaster. Political leaders were definitely not wearing their seat belts as they drove the economy towards the edge off a cliff.