Greece: A Government at Last

At 2 a.m. in Athens’ Constitution Square, the scene was much as it often had been during the hot, tense summer. Burly young demonstrators chanted “Papandreou” and “Traitors!” at Deputies emerging from the Parliament building, where scores of them had just deserted former Premier George Papandreou to vote for a rival Premier. If the demonstration seemed angrier than ever, it was because after ten weeks of crisis, Parliament had at last voted its confidence in a leader nominated by young King Constantine.

Former Deputy Premier Stephan Stephanopoulos, a 66-year-old bachelor, had turned the trick when he swore in as members of his new “coalition” Cabinet loannis Glavanis and Isador Mavri-doglou, two of the latest defectors from Papandreou’s onetime majority party, the Center Union. They brought Stephanopoulos’ total support in the 300-man Parliament to a slender majority ,pl 152. Before and during the noisy debate that led up to the final vote, Papandreou’s men in Parliament were reduced to chanting insults and spreading the rumor that one of the defectors had died.

The palace “has bought off eight more Deputies at the cost of Cabinet posts,” snapped George Papandreou. In fact, if any buying of votes had been done, it was done by George Papandreou himself during his 15 months as Premier—and therein lies the essence of one of his successor’s thorniest problems. Solidifying the popularity he had won throueh his oratory, Papandreou boosted minimum salaries of teachers and civil servants by 12%, increased social security benefits to workers and —in a land where 51% of the electorate lives on the farm—raised farm subsidies from $40 million in 1963 to an estimated $83 million this year. His policies sent the federal budget plunging steeply into the red and laid the groundwork for a classic inflationary spiral that could become very serious.

“Our objective,” said New Premier Stephanopoulos, “is to confront serious economic and social problems and restore peace and calm in the country.” Yet he can scarcely repeal any of Papandreou’s costly programs without enhancing his canny old opponent still more in the eyes of the voters—and sooner or later, as both Stephanopoulos and King Constantine know, there will have to be a general election to put Papandreou’s demands to the test.

George Papandreou was prepared to wait—or so it seemed. He had a long memory—and a sharp knife for opponents. “This third palace fabrication,” he maintained, will have “an ephemeral life. It will be crushed by internal rivalries. It will be crushed by popular anger.” So saying, he set off to the island of Crete for a series of mass meetings on his favorite topic: the King should reign, and not rule.