Greece: Applying a Plaster Cast

Greece’s junta leaders like to think of the country as a patient that requires their constant attention. Last week, as the regime finally made public its long-awaited new constitution, Colonel-turned-Premier George Papadopoulos put on his best bedside manner.

“We have a sick patient here,” he told newsmen. “We must decide how soon he will be able to walk and when we should remove the plaster cast. But if we decide the patient needs more plaster, we will give it to him.”

The new constitution encases Greek society, and particularly the institution of the monarchy, in a considerable amount of plaster. Though welcomed by many Greeks as a first move toward a return to parliamentary rule, it is, in fact, a carefully balanced document that retains for the junta much of its vast power even while re-establishing the trappings of democratic rule.

Minimonarchy. The constitution sets up a tightly controlled minimonarchy in which the real power rests with the Premier, a post that Papadopoulos hopes to retain through popular elections. Under the new document, which will be presented to the people in a referendum on Sept. 29, the government at some unspecified time will recall King Constantine from his Roman exile. But the constitution strips him of his two most important prerogatives—the power to hire and fire Premiers and to command the armed forces. In the future, Greece’s King will be obliged to name as Premier whoever is chief of the leading party in Parliament. The Premier, in turn, will become a sort of super-President who will run the armed forces and just about everything else.

The constitution also creates a separate executive branch for the Premier, who, once in office, will be virtually independent of the Parliament. The electoral system for selecting the 150 members of Parliament is designed to give big parties the edge by allotting them nonelected members on the basis of their strength at the polls. The junta naturally intends to organize its own party, which it is confident will gain enough favor with Greek voters to take advantage of such a provision. The constitution makes room for new blood in Greek politics by barring many old-time Greek politicians, including Andreas Papandreou, 49, the son of onetime Premier George Papandreou, who now lives in Sweden.

In addition, the constitution outlaws all Communists, forbids the press to print anything that might be construed as an incitement to change the established order and places all political parties under the control of a special court. The court will approve only those groups that, in the constitution’s words, “contribute to the advancement of the national interest”—a wording vague enough to enable the junta to outlaw any groups that might threaten its own grip on power.

Political Dilemma. Premier Papadopoulos seems to savor the dilemma that the new constitution poses for Greece’s politicians. Though they resent its harsh provisions, the politicians are in a quandary about how to go about registering their disapproval. If they denounce the constitution and Greek voters go ahead and overwhelmingly approve it anyway —as they may well do—Papadopoulos will be able to point to the results as an endorsement of the junta and a repudiation of the politicians. If they do nothing, they may appear to the Greek people after 15 months out of power as helpless has-beens.