Listening to and watching the speech of the Greek Prime Minister at the joint meeting of the Senate in Washington to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the beginning of the Greek Revolution of 1821, came to mind the swan speech of former US President Barack Obama in Athens.

It makes the mind associate something sometimes that surprises me. From time to time the speech “washing away” of Obama’s sins at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation for Culture comes to my mind watching Kyriakos Mitsotakis address the Congress.

To leave me wondering, I sat down and read the speech of the former President, who during his tenure used communication, social media and what else he could (I do not know if he strengthened the media) to beautify his image . .

But something that failed after the removal from the fund, sorry, the White House to transform into love and acceptance by citizens, as he is now considered one of the most failed Presidents in the US.

The speeches of both leaders were described as “historic”, which is why I do not yet understand. They had no political weight, nor did they change their countries or the world.

Not to be misunderstood, the fact that the Greek Prime Minister spoke in the Congress was a great honor for Greece, the country that honored both the Congress and the White House for the 200th anniversary of 1821. They did not honor the person of the Prime Minister. They honored Greece in the person of the Prime Minister.

The speeches of Winston Churchill in the British Parliament on June 4, 1940, for example, were historic, saying the historical phrase “we will never surrender”, by T.F. Kennedy on June 26, 1963 in Berlin, when he said “we are all Berliners” to Martin Luther King in Washington in August of that year, saying “I have a dream”. These were historical speeches because they changed history.

Both Obama and Mitsotakis made very good speeches, structured and emotional, aiming at the audience they were addressing. The first to the world public and the second to the Senators and the Greek public. The historical events mentioned in both do not make them historical, they just leveraged anger and emotion. In other words, public speeches with no new content.

This kind of speech was chosen by Barack Obama to end his term, from the cradle of the Republic, Athens. Symbolically to soften the impression of a term full of wars, disasters and less democracy. A purely communicative speech like his swan song.

Respectively, the speech of Kyriakos Mitsotakis was a communication construct based on the speech of Obama. The only thing we do not know if it is common with the speech of the former American President, is whether his circuit will be for the Greek Prime Minister as well.