One of the most interesting products to be introduced before Parliament was a handsomely wrapped labor union ‘socialization’ package which was billed as an act that would give more power to the rank-and-file in the unions. But by making strikes possible only by the majority vote of all union members, it in effect made the calling of a strike impossible. The law caused a great outcry from the opposition, both on the left and on the right.
On June 6, the very day that this legislation was passed through parliament, chief government spokesman, Dimitris Maroudas, announced that the negotiations between Greece and the U.S. over the military bases, now in their seventh month, were entering their final phase. For the next ten days, this issue, so varied in its implications, so dramatic in its day-to-day maneuverings, so vital to all citizens regardless of their political beliefs, was matched by an equal richness and variety of simile.
These, variously, compared the negotiations to a tennis match (much talk of balls being slammed or lobbed into opposite courts); to a Hollywood thriller (midnight meetings, secret rendezvous, fabulous social receptions); to an extraordinary financial deal (economic ‘packages’ being wrapped up in multi-million dollar ribbons a la Dallas and Dynasty); to an exciting new dish conjured up by Greek and American chefs for an internationally adventurous cookbook; and, even, to the expectations of a bouncing baby being brought into the world about whom none of the obstetricians could predict anything except to agree that the condition was ‘interesting’.
In spite of the discussions being in their seventh month of pregnancy, there still seemed to be a great deal to say, for the seven-hour meeting between Foreign Undersecretary Yiannis Kapsis and U.S. Special Envoy Reginald Bartholomew on June 6 was followed the next day with another five-hour session at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. That evening Mr. Maroudas once again assured journalists that the meetings were in their final phase.
On June 8, Prime Minister Papandreou told his party’s parliamentary committee that the negotiations had entered their final and very intense phase and expressed his belief that in a week’s time it would be known if the two countries had reached an agreement or not. The Kapsis-Bartholomew talks continued on the following day.
On June 10, the press was alerted to stand by for an extraordinary session of the cabinet that might take place on Sunday, June 12, at the end of which the prime minister would be likely to address the people on radio and television.
On Saturday morning, Kapsis and Bartholomew continued their talks at the Ministry. By this time these daily sessions had become so familiar to the public that the participants were being referred to affectionately as Yiannis and Reggie. Although this meeting was still going on in the afternoon, government sources pointed out that the outcome of the talks might still be announced later in the day, or on Sunday. Yet Sunday came – the popular Arthur Rubenstein serial on television went by uninterrupted – and Sunday went. The Yianni-Reggie marathon continued.
On Monday, June 13, Dimitris Maroudas announced to his somewhat benumbed listeners that the negotiations were continuing and added that, regardless of the outcome, the prime minister would be informing the president, the cabinet and the people what had, or had not, been agreed upon. The tension faded a bit that evening when Mr. Papandreou opened the three-day conference of Small and Medium Sized Business Enterprises, chaired by Vasso Papandreou (no relation).
If the public was beginning to think that the long distance talkers were suffering from sore jaws, or had somehow missed a turn on their Marathon course, Maroudas bravely attempted to buoy up national attention by stating that the negotiations, regardless of their outcome, would terminate by Friday.
Nevertheless, the statement of Tuesday, June 14, that the talks had stumbled on unexpected last minute difficulties was received with something less than breathless excitement. So was the announcement that a meeting between the president and the prime minister had been cancelled.
On Wednesday, June 16, despite Papandreou’s meeting with ministers at the Maximos Palace and a
brief encounter with President Karamanlis, the chief government spokesman’s statement told everything, “There is a significant disagreement concerning substantial issues in the negotiations.” Although the whole accord had been gone over item by item, for some reason it was, as a whole, unsatisfactory. Undaunted, Yiannis and Reggie continued their now habitual tete-a-tete at a meeting held at midnight, but public enthusiasm was fast evaporating. Indeed, with the opening of the sensational Dragon of Drama trial that afternoon – a chilling tale of rape and murder in Macedonia – national attention had been totally distracted. Even the government could not quite interest itself at the last sessions of the base talks. That same night, the prime minister and his closest advisors preferred attending a sumptuous wedding reception at the Ekali Club where the bridegroom rowed the bride around the swimming pool in a white boat festooned with flowers.
It may have been the only boat operating in the country as there was a general shipping strike just starting. The next day the government presented the U.S. envoy with a list of objections, implying, gamely, that the ball was now in the opposite court. But by this time the news was being swallowed up quickly by wedding receptions, rape trials, boat strikes and the difficulties being experienced by Small and Medium Sized Business Enterprises.
In an attempt to sauce over the anticlimax, the breakdown in the negotiations was compared to a dish whose ingredients were of top quality, the cooking done to a turn, the garnishing a delight to the eye, but whose mayonnaise at the last moment seperated. On June 17, Mr. Bartholomew returned to Washington. . Mr. Kapsis, it is hoped, will have many quiet and leisure hours in which to recuperate.
