Some believe this is due to an inborn, unquenchable thirst for drama, and it may be no coincidence that the only extant ancient trilogy ends with a thrilling court case in which even the gods participate.
Thoughtful observers of the Greek phenomenon – CM Woodhouse prominent among them – point out the generally held belief that Greece thinks itself as being always at the center of the world’s stage. Whatever happens, however remote, is done specifically with Greece in mind, for it, against it, because of it, in spite of it.
This belief is strengthened by the prime minister’s ability to arouse total audience participation. His many absences from the domestic scene may be excused for all those guest appearances abroad, in New Delhi, Belgrade and Davos, to mention only the most recent. With Mr Papandreou all the world’s a Greek stage, at least on ERT 1 and 2. Those modest walk-on parts taken by former conservative leaders will no longer do.
Byron called it ‘a passion for excitement’, no doubt with approval, as he shared in it, too. This passion, however, is matched by a dread of tedium vitae, and one may attribute to February’s midwinter doldrums – when the heating bill is highest and tourists fewest – the opening of ‘the Cyprus’ file to heat things up a bit. But, traditionally, when the weather’s poor and the theatre season’s slack, life is dramatized by taking someone to court. Like horse shows and basketball, litigation is above all a winter sport.
The moving of the central courts from Santaroza Street to the spacious quarters of the former Evelpidon (Cadet) School, far from dampening down the spirit of dispute, seems to have inspired it; The Santaroza site, in recent years decaying into Dickensian squalor, is giving way to a beautification project, a patch of greenery which leftists like to call a Park of Culture and Rest. But as Melina Mercouri often demonstrates, there is nothing restful about culture, any more than there is .about Greek law, and she has 3000 years of restless civilization behind her to prove it.
The former Evelpidon School is a handsome complex of 13 neoclassical buildings designed by the German architect, Ernst Ziller. While the long backlog of legal cases is ready and waiting, the new site, where the rights of man are now being defended before the august presence of the law, is not. Most of the court rooms lack heating, and modern facilities such as photocopying machines and ashtrays are still missing. The parking area is a vast pile of rubble, though an appropriate one. It is the location of the former Passas Museum, itself a classic court tangle which began under the junta and lasted for ten years. Furthermore, there are lacking two of the most essential features of legal process. There is no cafeteria nor a proper kiosk where one can purchase those assortments of stamps which must decorate every paper and without which no case can even be introduced. Notwithstanding this state of affairs, the enthusiasm for legal hearing is undiminished.
Nearly everybody who is anybody has appeared in court in the last few weeks. In the cultural field, two leading figures appeared before the prosecutor, painter Yiannis Tsarouchis and the wealthy gallerist and art patron, Alexander Iolas. In the former case, Tsarouchis was acquitted of charges relating to thefts of icons from monasteries and churches. The latter case, rendered notorious by the testimony of transvestite ‘Maria Callas’ involved accusations of smuggling antiquities abroad and the selling of stolen works of art. Mr Iolas was freed on bail amounting to three million drachmas.
On the other hand, Danos Krystallis, a well-publicized former employee of the security forces, arrested for dabbling in terrorism and suspected of planting a bomb-defused at the last moment – near the podium where opposition leader Constantine Mitsotakis was about to speak, was freed on merely 50,000 drachmas’ bail.
Most publicized were trials involving the press. Within a three-week span publishers of three afternoon dailies were given prison sentences. The publisher of Avriani was charged with libel against members of the judiciary. A number of journalists’ unions applauded the sentence, accusing the newspaper of “vulgarity”.
Two weeks later the publishersof Vradyni were given prison sentences for sfandering the president. Although a public prosecutor had recommended an investigation into the salary and employment of Mrs Sartzetakis, the court ruled that the newspaper was indirectly attacking the president by mocking his wife. A few days later, Eleftheros Typos was charged on similar grounds.
Having made much of the prime minister’s being greeted with a volley of oranges in January, it went on at great length last month about a similar shower of brussels sprouts aimed at the president’s wife. Mrs Papandreou blew up a storm last year by calling the Greek press “yellow” in an interview abroad. For someone known to be outspoken, she could now be accused (without slander) of understatement.
