A Victory Without Triumph

Caramanlis wins, but Papandreou comes on strong

"So we Greeks have been from ancient times: we are skillful at making idols, not that we may worship them, but that we may have the pleasure of destroying them. "

--Constantino Caramanlis, Paris

1972

After the collapse of the military junta and his dramatic return from exile in Paris, Caramanlis won the 1974 Greek elections by a landslide. On the night of that victory, the streets of Athens spilled over with crowds of worshipful supporters cheering and waving flags. Three thousand diehard followers shouted "Caramanlis! Caramanlis!" outside his house until dawn; twice during the night the Greek Premier stepped out on the balcony to wave at them from the heights in shared triumph.

Last week the idol that was Caramanlis turned out to be--in the eyes of Greek voters--just another mortal politician. In an election he had called a year early to seek a new mandate, the conservative Premier won a second term, but with a greatly reduced majority. Caramanlis' New Democracy Party held on to 42% of the vote (against 54% in 1974); that translated into 173 seats in the 300-member National Assembly, according to the reinforced proportional system that rewards big parties. Nonetheless, the total was down from the 215 that New Democracy had before. No fewer than five cabinet members went down to defeat.

The symbolic winner in the election was Andreas Papandreou's Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), which doubled its vote to 25% and won 92 seats, thereby becoming Greece's second leading party and the main opposition. PASOK overtook George Mavros' middle-of-the-road Democratic Center Union, which fell to 12% of the vote and won only 15 seats. On the far right, the new National Rally Party won 7% and five seats; on the far left, Greece's two Communist parties--one Moscow-lining, the other Eurocommunist in outlook and running jointly with other splinter groups--garnered 12% and 13 seats.

This time it was jubilant PASOK supporters who celebrated and Papandreou who claimed victory. To the cheers of a partisan crowd that gathered outside as the returns piled up, the fiery socialist Papandreou sauntered happily into the government election center and lifted both hands high in the classic V sign. At their old headquarters building in the commercial and student section of Exarheia, youthful, bearded PASOK workers joyfully embraced as they heard the news about notable new Deputies who had won election: Actress Melina Mercouri (Never on Sunday), comfortably elected--to a seat representing the port of Piraeus--after an unsuccessful try in 1974; and Lady Amalia Fleming, widow of penicillin's discoverer, a bacteriologist and a political prisoner under the junta.

Caramanlis felt that he had been "sabotaged" by the ultrarightist National Rally, which exploited monarchist sentiment and pockets of junta nostalgia and siphoned off votes from New Democracy's conservative wing. Under the peculiarities of the system, the National Rally's five seats would have translated into 30 additional seats for Caramanlis. But friend and foe alike agreed that another important factor was the contrasting campaign styles--and personalities--of Caramanlis and Papandreou.

True to his austere, aloof image as a unique national leader who had restored democratic stability after the dark years of the junta, Caramanlis, 70, staged only four major rallies. Explained a confidant: "He felt a responsible leader must not cheapen himself with two speeches a day full of repetition and sloganeering." On the other hand, Papandreou, 58, the son of former Greek Premier George Papandreou, and a former economics professor at the University of California at Berkeley, mounted an American-style grassroots campaign, crisscrossing the country to visit countless towns and villages.

A magnetic speaker who has frequently been accused of demagogy, Papandreou advocated complete withdrawal from NATO, came out against membership in the European Community, and promised social benefits ranging from free medical care to a 300% increase in farmers' pensions. Papandreou's main pitch was for a nonaligned "Greece for the Greeks," which he shrewdly contrasted with Caramanlis' well-known phrase, "Greece belongs to the West." After the election, Papandreou told TIME Rome Bureau Chief Jordan Bonfante: "The majority of the Greek people want out. NATO is a coercion mechanism in the West, just as the Warsaw Pact is in the East. This is a relic of the Second World War."

Papandreou opposes any compromise with Turkey, which complicates Caramanlis' search for a solution to the Cyprus impasse and other Greco-Turkish problems. Thus Caramanlis will face an opposition that not only promises to be aggressive but disagrees with him over every key point of foreign policy.

Clearly, new battle lines had been drawn in Greek politics that could extend far beyond Athens to the eastern Mediterranean and East-West rivalry itself. "In 1974 Caramanlis was a messiah," a close and sympathetic friend of his observed last week. "Now he is just a man who has won first place." And a rather problematical first at that.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.