Mediterranean Politics | Europa 2007 in Greece: Paving the Way for a Major Political Realignment a m a Michalis Spourdalakis ready to leave behind its political strategy of ‘blam - r o n Professor, ing everything on PASOK’ and finally to implement its a P Department of Political Science & Public Administration, program. However, it proved a rather disappointing University of Athens year for the Government. After it had achieved pow - er on a promise to eliminate corruption, and with an ethical and political condemnation of the partitocra - When future historians come to write the history of cia of public life, one could not have anticipated the 8 0 0 modern Greek politics, the developments of 2007 may series of events that were to jeopardize this promise 2 . d be recognized as the spark that ignited the most sig - in a most vivid fashion. e M nificant major political changes since the 1974 fall of the Dictatorship ( Metapolitefsi ). These developments appear to increase the challenge posed to the es - Incompetence and Corruption tablished political and party alignments. These align - ments have been expressed within a two-party-plus The Government’s most significant actions and ini - 1 8 system, where governments implemented major, tiatives during last year’s administration revealed a 1 hegemonic political projects, which proved crucial striking incompetence and/or corruption. The failure to the country’s development. Thus, it was the con - to contain the mass student movement within the servatives of the New Democracy Party (ND) that framework of the rule of law, the striking police bru - dominated the delicate transition to democracy in tality and misuse of power against immigrants (March), the mid-1970s, the radicalism of the ‘change’ of the the tragic incapacity of the state authorities to respond Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) in the to emergencies, such as the twelve missing persons 1980s and, after a short interlude of weak govern - in the Peloponnesian mountains (May) or the sinking ments, the New PASOK that dominated the political of the cruiser “Sea Diamond” at the port of Santorini scene with its modernizing project of more than 10 with unmeasured ecological consequences (April), years, which led Greece into the Eurozone. Until the and finally the pathetic failure of the government to 2004 March elections, when the revamped ND, un - prevent or simply to put out the summer fires which der the leadership of Kostas Karamanlis, nephew of cost the lives of over 70 people and nearly destroyed the party’s founder Konstantine Karamanlis, came to the archaeological site in Olympia (July, August) grad - power on a platform that promised to overturn the cor - ually challenged the government’s political strategy rupt patterns of the Greek Socialists and to make ex - of ‘blaming everything on PASOK’. The government’s tensive ‘reforms’, these two parties dominated Greek inability to deal with the everyday life of citizens, and politics. The parliamentary presence of other parties, to provide them with security and respect for the which were primarily on the left, was limited and at law, had started to become striking. times symbolic. However, as of last year’s election, Moreover the Governing party’s failure to implement this pattern appears to be changing. its program and maintain the profile of a moderate 2007 was supposed to be a very promising year for non-nationalist, cosmopolitan, rational and law-abid - the governing ND. Emerging from a rather good per - ing political force exacerbated its above-mentioned formance during the autumn 2006 municipal and re - incompetence. The reform of the Constitution held a gional elections, the Karamanlis government seemed prominent place in ND’s electoral platform. The sym - bol of this Constitutional reform was the revision of of financiers linked to the government and led to the the article prohibiting the functioning of private uni - resignation of the minister responsible, was proba - versities in the country. Although the majority of bly the most striking example, that is, until December. PASOK, the leading opposition party, had agreed It was then that the Secretary General of the min - on this reform, a large popular backlash forced it to istry of culture, a political appointee of the Prime be dropped from the Constitutional reform, which led Minister himself, attempted to commit suicide. This to the termination of the entire process. shocking action was however only the tip of the ice - berg, since it was soon revealed that this individual The government’s inability to was connected not only to a sex scandal but more significantly to a series of corrupt distributions of deal with the everyday life of millions of Euros through the secret account of his a citizens, and to provide them department. m a r Finally, another major issue that confronted the gov - o with security and respect for n a ernment domestically was the content of the history P the law, had started to become text-book for the sixth grade. The book, which was striking authorized by the government agency responsible, challenges some of the dominant myths of modern Other major reform promises were the ‘re-establish - Greek history. This was enough for nationalists, of all 8 ment of the state’, which basically meant a radical backgrounds, to react and demand that the book be 0 0 2 restructuring of the poorly functioning civil service, withdrawn as an official text for students. Since the . d e the ‘rationalisation’ of the pension plans and exten - majority of the reactions came from ND supporters, M sive reforms in the country’s university system based the government tried to maintain its image as a ration - on a new and state-controlled system of evaluation. al, liberal and non-nationalist political force by defer - The last was introduced in a way that led to reactions ring the issue and through procedural excuses to from both the student and the academic community. sweep it under the carpet. Finally, however it gave in 2 The government retreated temporarily and finally intro - to the pressure and withdrew the book. To many it was 8 1 duced a number of contradictory measures, a good yet another proof of the Government’s unreliability. part of which are almost impossible to implement. As for the much advertised ‘re-establishment of the state’, this never resulted in a clear and/or concrete Foreign Policy: Going with the Flow set of proposals; however, the governmental party’s interference in the inner workings of the public admin - During the last year the Government’s foreign policy istration showed that it was simply a façade to col - did not changed. The Karamanlis government con - onize the state and control the civil servants. Finally, tinued a rather passive political strategy. The visit of the reform of the pension plans was delayed after the UN commissioner Mathew Nimic concerning the issue election and the initial plan managed to rally literally of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia the entire work force against it ( thousands of peo - (FYROM) (January), the visit of the Turkish Chief of ple marched in the streets of Athens just last Staff to Salonica (April) or the visit of Turkey’s Minister December). Finally, the plan was temporarily aban - of Foreign Affairs to Athens (December) did not result doned as the cabinet minister responsible resigned in any progress on the thorny issues with Turkey or over a personal housing by-law violation. The task of the question of the name of the neighbouring this reform was passed on to the next minister, who ‘Macedonia’. Nor did the government manage to take faced not only the reactions of the Unions but a wide - advantage of Chancellor Merkel’s visit to Athens or spread mistrust of the Government when yet anoth - Prime Minister Karamanlis’ trip to Moscow (December), er major economic and political scandal was revealed to New Zealand and Australia (May) to promote the in a dramatic way. country’s interests. Greece has kept a very low pro - In fact, throughout 2007 a number of governmental file regarding EU developments, as well as maintain - actions were the outcome of the misuse of state power. ing a low profile in the region and in relation to the This was a pattern set primarily the previous year. The events that marked the Mediterranean countries. ill-advised transfer of a number of pension plans into The only exception to this pattern was the visit of hedge funds, which was proved to benefit a number President V. Putin to sign the agreement for the build - ing of the Bourgaz-to-Alexandroupolis pipeline to this mobilization was structured around a strong transport Russian natural gas. The profound eco - ‘euroscepticism’, an anthropomorphic ‘anti-imperial - nomic impact on Greece and the region itself is clear. ist’ and often unexpected nationalist rhetoric, and a zero-sum logic vis-à-vis the politics of all the other political parties. In a similar vein, the small radical The Opposition right-wing party (Popular Orthodox Rally- LAOS), which had already elected a member to the European In confronting all these issues, the leading opposi - Parliament (2004), seemed to be making advances. tion party (PASOK) proved to be strikingly inefficient. The mid-year polls indicated that the influence of Its new leader George Papandreou, son of the party’s this party had been consolidated and that it exceed - founder Andreas, did not succeed in capitalizing on ed the three percent threshold necessary to enter the the Government’s failures. Given its long involvement Greek Parliament. This was verified in September’s a m a in government, PASOK had a hard time distancing general elections. r o n itself from the Government’s political strategy.