From Table Top to Throne

In Athens these days it is easy for a man to achieve prominence. If he has a scratchy pen, a crumpled piece of lined paper, and a coffeehouse table to lean on, he has only to write out a declaration, cross the palm tree courtyard, dash up the steps of the Areios Pagos (Supreme Court Building) and hand his paper across the attorney's desk. Presto! he has created a new political party. When he gets back to the coffeehouse, he will be no longer plain Dimitrios but, instead, "Mr. President" of the party.

For many Greeks this year, such quick fame is irresistible. Although elections are not due until March 5, there were 140 registered parties in Greece last week. There was the National Salvation Party, whose emblem was a skyscraper apartment house with St. Constantine and his mother, St. Helena, peeping out of the top window. Its platform: "Death and scorn to the wicked and incompetent who have brought Hellas to this plight." There was the Greek Orthodox Party, whose leader exhibited his own photograph in white pleated national dress, with the motto, "Love is the mother of happiness." Among the rest were the National Rebirth Party, the Motorists' Party, and the Large Working Families Party.

In Salonika, the most colorful competition was provided by the leader of the Byzantine Party, Michael Angelopoulou, whose symbol is the two-headed eagle. He calls himself Michael I* and claims to be descended from the Byzantine Dynasty, but scorns requests for proof ("let someone contest it if he dares"). He urges all parties to unite with him for restoration of the Byzantine Empire, "of course without quarreling with the Turks, who are good, sweet fellows." Fiery, mustached Emperor Michael is vague about most of his program, but specific on one point: if elected, he wants a carved walnut throne. When he heard that part of the job of the U.N.'s Balkan Committee was to help Greeks, Michael got right in with his own request: ten cars, two typewriters, two radios, loudspeakers and money. In the meantime, he has been stopping Salonika traffic, campaigning from a table top.

* Thus ignoring nine other Michaels among his putative imperial ancestors, including Michael III (the Drunkard) and Michael IV (the Tickler). Michael IV was valet to the Emperor Romanus, who used to call Michael in to tickle the soles of his feet. Romanus' wife, the Empress Zoe, fell in love with Michael, poisoned Romanus, married tickling Michael and made him Emperor, while Michael's brother, John the Eunuch, ran the country as premier. Michael got sick, locked himself in a room and died refusing to see the lovelorn Zoe. John the Eunuch went on running the country.

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