All other parties stand a slim chance of electing even an insignificant number of deputies, if any. New Democracy (ND), the government party founded by President Constantine Karamanlis and now headed by Prime Minister George Rallis (aged 63), seeks from the electorate a renewed mandate, basing itself on its record of getting Greece into the Common Market, standing firm on the issues of NATO and the US bases, establishing working relations with all countries in the area and instituting many social, educational and economic reforms. ND, which won a sweeping 54% of the popular vote and 220 seats out of 300 in Parliament when it was founded in 1974, saw this majority trimmed down to 42% and 171 seats in the 1977 elections. Whether it can repeat the 1977 performance is now in doubt.
The challenger is the Panhel-lenic Socialist Movement (PASOK in Greek), founded also in 1974 by Andreas Papandreou (62). It attacks the Rallis government for mismanagement of the country’s finances, inflation, administrative incompetence, favoritism in appointments, subservience to US and NATO interests, conclusion of the EEC accession treaty, against Greek interests, and just about everything else it can think of. In turn, PASOK seeks an exit from NATO, a renegotiation of relations with EEC, a more non-aligned policy internationally and a ‘socialization’ of several sectors of production. PASOK polled a modest 13.6% of the popular vote, with only 12 deputies, in 1974, but three years later shot up dramatically to second place with 25% of the votes and 93 deputies. Having shown since then a fighting spirit and an efficient party organization throughout the country, Papandreou and his party are confi-dent that this year they will sweep the polls. However, whether he can capture more than 150 deputies, enabling him to form a viable, single-party government, is also doubtful, though not impossible.
Third party in the forthcoming contest will surely be the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), legalized in 1974 after 27 years in the political wilderness. Toeing the orthodox Moscow line, KKE seeks a pull-out from NATO and EEC, closer ties with the Eastern bloc and a nationalization of ‘capitalist-monopolist’ enterprises. Headed by party general secretary Harilaos Florakis (67), an ex-telegraph operator and ex-guerrilla fighter, KKE in 1974 cautiously joined a three-party leftist coalition that polled 9.5% of the total popular vote and sent five KKE deputies to Parliament. In 1977 KKE ran on its own platform and polled 9.4% of the votes with eleven deputies. This time it has been conducting an intensive campaign with the aim of polling at least 17% of the popular vote — the magic number that will enable the party to join in the second distribution of parliamentary seats in accordance with the complex electoral law (see article on page 17). However, in view of the strength of PASOK and small but annoying pressure from other left-wing groups, this KKE target is un-likely to be fulfilled.
Other parties running in the forthcoming contest will be sandwiched – and stifled – between these ‘big three’. They are mainly two parties in the right-wing camp, five in the center and two more in the left wing. The two right-wingers are the National Front (EP), headed by Spyros Theotokis (73), which in 1977 elected five deputies, four of whom subsequently switched over to ND, and the Progressive Party (KP), founded by Spyros Markezinis (72), who came out of deep freeze last year for the first time since army tanks deprived him in his sleep of a short-lived, junta-backed premiership in 1973. EP includes many royalists among its ranks, while KP caters mostly to former junta sympathizers. A recent attempt to incorporate EP into ND was abortive. (Rallis and Theotokis, who are cousins, have not been on speaking terms for some time.)
In the center, the picture presents a queer mosaic. The once powerful center camp, that traces its origin to the Liberal Party of the late Eleftherios Venizelos of World War I fame, and rose to power again as the Center Union under the late George Papandreou in 1964-1965, polled a solid 20% with 60 deputies under George Mavros in 1974. Three years later, renamed Union of the Demo-cratic Center (EDIK), the party suffered a humiliating debacle, polling only 12% of the votes with 16 deputies. Mavros thereupon resigned the party leadership in favor of John Zigdis. The latter, however, simply could not get along with anyone. Since 1977, most EDIK deputies have quit the party, leaving Zigdis a solitary quixotic figure.
The center mosaic now presents the following line-up: EDIK under Zigdis (68) with only himself in the outgoing Parliament, the Party of Democratic Socialism (KODISO) under Professor John Pesmazoglou (63) with two deputies, a newly-born Rally of the Center (PARKE) founded by Mavros (72) with two deputies, the Liberal Party (K F) recently resuscitated by the original founder’s shipowner grandson Niki-tas Venizelos (51) with three deputies and Agrarian-Workers Party (KAE) of Alexander Baltatzis (77) not represented in Parliament. Attempts by rank-and-filers to bring these splinter groups under a common roof have run afoul of every leader’s reluctance to place himself under someone else’s leadership. The latest word is that Mavros has teamed up with PASOK in view of the elections, while Pesmazoglou has similarly formed an alliance with Baltatzis. In any case, analysts believe that the bulk of center followers have switched to PASOK with a few possibly going over to ND. The trend has been evident since 1977, when center voters failed to discern any substantial difference between the platforms of EDIK and ND.
In the left-wing camp there are two small parties besides KKE, each of which has been represented by one deputy in the last Parliament. They are: the Communist Party of Greece of the Interior (KKE-Eso-terikou), a pro-Eurocommunist splinter of KKE that refuses to recognize Moscow as the undisputed mecca of world communism, headed by general secretary Haralambos Drakopoulos (64) but with Leonidas Kyrkos (57) as its sole parliamentary deputy; and United Democratic Left (EDA), an old party that has housed a number of non-communist left-wing intellectuals. EDA has been led by the respected Nestor of Greek politics Elias Eliou (77), who is now passing on leadership to Manolis Glezos (59), known for his wartime feat of pulling down the Nazi swastika from the Acropolis. In addition to these two, there is a sprinkling of smaller marx-ist-leninist, trotskyist, maoist and other groups that have failed to elect a deputy in past elections.
All these parties notwithstanding, the October contest will be a tug-of-war between ND and PASOK and — probably for the first time in modern Greek politics — more a contest of issues than of personalities. Rallis, a lawyer son and grandson of former prime ministers, has been a hard-working technocrat who has at one time or other successfully led most of the important government departments. He has deliberately conducted a low-key electoral cam-paign mostly free of personal invective. He has stood on the record of his government (and of that of his more illustrious predecessor, Kara-manlis), laying particular emphasis on foreign policy issues and Greece’s ‘equal’ voice in EEC councils. Papandreou, a US-trained economist and also son of a former prime minister — a part of whose famous oratory and charismatic personality he has inherited – has been relentlessly attacking the government on just that – its record and what he considers its negative aspects.
ND has undoubtedly suffered the inevitable wear and tear of many years in power amidst a tumultuous world economy. The electorate, hit by mounting inflation, has been clamoring for change. But the big question is, what sort of change? Papan-dreou’s recipe and promises sound attractive enough, but Rallis warns that they are unrealistic, financially impossible to fulfill and a marxist step backwards that will lead to the country’s international isolation. KKE, for its part, is hoping to tip the balance in favor of PASOK in case the latter fails to win an absolute majority of seats in Parliament. Although Papandreou has denied any intention of post-election collaboration with the Communists, KKE hopes the Mitterrand experiment of admitting Communists into a Social-ist government will be repeated in Greece.
Forecasting the forthcoming election results has proved risky and unreliable on account of the unusually high proportion of Greeks who seem uncommitted and undecided. They will probably make up their minds when they reach the ballot box. The late George Papandreou used to liken the ballot box to a pregnant woman: “You know that a baby is coming,” he would say, “but you cannot forecast its sex.”
Glendi in Andros
Shortly after sunset on Saturday, August 29, Minister of Culture Andreas Andrianopoulos cut the ribbon that officially opened the Archaeological Museum of Andros, donated by Basil and Eliza Goulan-dris, expressing the opinion that it is “the best museum in Greece”. By this he did not mean that it contained the greatest treasures, but that in design, in display, and in function it is superior to all others in the country. After a tour of the museum which followed, the visitors — who comprised the cream of the cultural, artistic, political and social world of Athens — were inclined to concur with this opinion.
Several weeks earlier, hundreds of people had received invitations from Basil and Eliza Goulandris to be their guests for two days at Chora, on Andros. These were accompanied by an invitation, under the auspices of President Karamanlis, to the inauguration of the museum itself. Commemorating the event, the President said pointedly: “In the past, we have had many who were benefactors but few who were wealthy, while in our time there are many who are wealthy but few who are benefactors.”
On Friday night, the harbor began filling up with yachts all decorated with festive pennants, while in town a final polish was being given to the museum windows, sidewalks were being swept, and one road was still being paved with the aid of flashlights since an intermittent strike by DEI employees was affecting all the Cyclades. At noon, on Saturday the adjacent Plateia Kairi began to be cleared of its cafe tables and chairs to make way for a vast banquet area which that evening seated over a thousand personally invited guests. The caterers, however, had been instructed to provide for three thousand, to include the whole town. The spirit of kefi which reigned impressed everyone from Mme. Georges Pompidou who said she had “never seen anything like it” to a pair of wide-eyed, newly-arrived backpackers who asked one another, as they heaped their plates high with lobster, “Is it like this every night? ” After the huge repast, an area was cleared for dancing to a laiko orchestra. Although the Goulandrises and Mme. Pompidou performed the kala-maiianos commendably, it must be said that the ministers and deputies displayed the greatest energy, as is so often true before elections. The glendi continued all night, and it is very much to the credit of Mr. and Mrs. Goulandris to have recalled that the spirit of communal hospitality was always regarded in ancient times as an essential attribute of civilization.
