Greece Votes Socialist

Going against the European grain, Greece has voted George Papandreou's center-left PaSoK party to power in a landslide. Promising a new political culture, an end to cronyism and a 3 billion euro stimulus package for the economy, the president of the Socialist International has at last won the job that was held by his father and grandfather before him. But despite being to the manor born, Papandreou is neither a lightweight nor a populist demagogue in the style of his father, Andreas, who took such pains to be a thorn in Ronald Reagan's side. Mild-mannered, thoughtful, modest, he is a new Papandreou for the age of Obama: an American-born, European social democrat with a green conscience and a commitment to markets as well as democracy.

Nor is his victory a sign that Europe is leaning left: witness Angela Merkel's recent triumph in Germany. It is a local phenomenon, the product of Greece's recent political history. PaSoK lost power to the conservative New Democracy in 2004 after eleven years in office, during which it squeezed Greece into the Eurozone, put through a patchwork program of modernizing reforms, mended relations with Turkey, staged a grand (and exorbitant) Olympic Games, and became a byword for paybacks and corruption. New Democracy's Kostas Karamanlis (also a scion of an old political dynasty) took over with a promise to clean out the Augean stables.

But New Democracy's carryings-on made PaSoK's scandals look like minor pecadilloes. Overpriced government bonds were sold to state pension funds; cabinet ministers dreamed up lucrative property scams with abbots from Mount Athos. On Karamanlis's watch, vast tracts of the country literally went up in flames; the fire service, weakened by political interference, did too little much too late, and the promised restoration of forests, farms and villages fell victim to the usual toxic mixture of incompetence and graft. For a few days last December, violence in Athens gripped the world's TV cameras. The shooting of a 15-year old boy by a trigger-happy policeman seemed to sum up the state's indifference to a whole generation; broken promises were repaid with smashed shop windows and hopelessness with rioting in the streets.

When Papandreou became the leader of his party in 2004 he vowed to root out the corruption bred by many decades of patronage politics, a task at least as hard as persuading Americans to accept public health care. Until the economic crisis brought down property prices, much of Greece made ends meet by selling off plots of land; Papandreou's commitment to sustainable development will also require a lot of citizen re-education. (He has made an excellent start by scrapping the previous government's appalling tourism plan, which would have covered the coast with condos and diverted scarce water supplies to thirsty golf courses.) Vested interests, old behavior patterns, inertia and plain greed will rub the glow off the election promises the way they always do. But just for today, for this diaspora Greek, the relief is almost thrilling.

Comments (34)

1. This has ACORN written ALL over it! Fascists, community organizers, and teachers who showed the Obama speech around the world UNITE!!

   Posted by MATTMAN at 10/05/2009 @ 3:48pm

2. George Papandreou ... has at last won the job that was held by his father and grandfather before him.

   When Papandreou became the leader of his party in 2004 he vowed to root out the corruption bred by many decades of patronage politics

   posted by Maria Margaronis on 10/05/2009 @ 3:32pm

   Remember in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" when they asked, "Well 'ow did you become king then?" Did he answer "My father and grandfather were king" or "many decades of patronage"?

   Posted by Mistral at 10/05/2009 @ 4:04pm

3. Who in hell would visit Greece to play golf? Maybe the same kind of person who would go to the Acropolis hoping to find a Ferris wheel.

   Posted by Sorelish at 10/05/2009 @ 5:05pm

4. Merkel's victory was hardly a victory for the right. The Conseervative Party got it's worst showing since the war. Der Lienke, the extreme left, increased it's showing to over 12% and the Green's also got their best showing ever. The Free Democrats, a centrist party, also did well enabling the Conservatives to form a coalition without the Socialists. The Social Democrats suffered a meltdown. The voters shifted left, it was the ruling coalition which shifted right.

   Posted by lnh at 10/05/2009 @ 7:08pm

5. "Papandreou's commitment to sustainable development will also require a lot of citizen re-education."

   Haha, Socialism summed up in a single sentence.

   Wake up folks, it's happening here too.

   Posted by freiheit1 at 10/05/2009 @ 7:13pm

6. Not much of a follower of Greek politics. But, I can tell you that every Mexican president in the last 40 years has run on the "I'll fight corruption" plank, and many have done very well financially while president. So, I guess we'll see, won't we?

   Posted by twillie at 10/05/2009 @ 8:56pm

7. "Haha, Socialism summed up in a single sentence."

   freiheit, can you define socialism, and how this particular plank of the new president's reform would qualify as a strictly "socialistic" endeavor?

   come on, frei, be a man. stand up for what you believe in.

   Posted by darladoon at 10/05/2009 @ 9:38pm

8. come on, frei, be a man. stand up for what you believe in.

   Posted by darladoon at 10/05/2009 @ 9:38pm | ignore this person | warn this person

   Not to worry darlaloon citizen re-education won't be required in your gulag only forced manual labor!

   Posted by BigPasture at 10/05/2009 @ 10:39pm

9. Posted by darladoon at 10/05/2009 @ 9:38pm

   Hi Darla,

   Do you want to live in a society in which a politician's committment to development will require "a lot of citizen re-education" as the author glibly relates?! In fact, do you even comprehend the totalitarian weight of such a statement? Where is the freedom? Where is the representation?

   Would you agree that Obama's committment to continuing the war in Afghanistan will require "a lot of citizen re-education" too? You cool with that? Why are we still there Darla? Are you being re-educated now about that?

   Don't you think a politician's job should be to represent the will of the people and serve the people? Explain how representing the will of the people requires ANY "citizen re-education"?

   You just don't get it Darla. You don't understand how all this power you want to give government can turn on you overnight. You and people like you are being played like fiddles by power.

   Telling me to define socialism... Fuck you. You're the one who'll be marching in the streets someday clamoring for socialism, clueless to the fact that's what you already have...

   Hey, have a great evening!

   Posted by freiheit1 at 10/05/2009 @ 10:56pm

10. frei,

    please, for the benefit of you readers, define socialism.

    or are you not man enough to stand up and proclaim to that which you are so, so opposed?

    and, additionally, i would like you to specifically describe how the new greek president's policy proposals are, in fact, socialistic.

    come on, frei, be a man. stand up for what you believe in!

    Posted by darladoon at 10/05/2009 @ 11:27pm

11. "You don't understand how all this power you want to give government can turn on you overnight. You and people like you are being played like fiddles by power."

    ha! under your hero/president/idiot george w. bush, innocent people were round up, imprisoned without charges, wiretapped, tortured, and murdered (!).

    Posted by darladoon at 10/05/2009 @ 11:31pm

12. Posted by darladoon at 10/05/2009 @ 11:31pm

    And yet idiots like you want to give even more power to the federal government.

    Posted by freiheit1 at 10/06/2009 @ 12:12am

13. ha! under your hero/president/idiot george w. bush, innocent people were round up, imprisoned without charges, wiretapped, tortured, and murdered (!).

    Posted by darladoon at 10/05/2009 @ 11:31pm | ignore this person | warn this person

    Rambling leftist slanders of Bush is so old and lacking in credibility it is surprising to see it. In case you have not noticed Bush is no longer President so you can dispense with the lies and maligning! clinton, carter, lbj, jfk, just where do you want to go with your ridiculous regurgitations?

    Lets talk about the arrogant elitist idiot in the white house!

    Posted by BigPasture at 10/06/2009 @ 02:39am

14. Anything that's prepared to take on Big Business and is green, has to be an improvement.

    I note elsewhere that Apple has withdrawn from the US Chamber of Commerce, because of the COC's determination to fight any limits on carbon emissions at all. At the same time, studies published yesterday show that acidification of the Arctic Ocean due to dissolved CO2 is at dangerous levels, and set to disrupt the entire Arctic ecology (and the food chain) within a decade. http://www.biogeosciences.net/6/515/2009/bg-6-515-2009.html

    Draw your own conclusions.

    Well done Greece! I hope for more of the same, as those who have a long-term view organise and act.

    Posted by mikecope at 10/06/2009 @ 02:45am

15. PPPlease, don't be so allergic to the "S" word. Every modern politician in Europe is a socialist or socialdemocrat. Even communists often belong to the libertarian left. Papandreou and the Socialist Party (PASOK) have proven in the past that they are the only political power in Greece that cares for modern infrastructure, democratic institutions and social policies. The last time PASOK ruled, they introduced an objective recruiting process for the public sector, whlile reducing the number of the public employees. It's true, Greece will only try to imitate some of the traits of northern Europe's social democracy. Sadly, we're not turning communist, which would at least add some thrill

    Posted by sokratis at 10/06/2009 @ 06:27am

16. Another Mask prediction come true--

    "Lets talk about the arrogant elitist idiot in the white house!"----Posted by BigPasture at 10/06/2009 @ 02:39am

    Why...I thought he was a"Hitler"?!?!?!?!?

    "Even our own Rio/BP will likely fall into it. "Easing away" from his "Obama is a modern Hitler" stuff into "Obama is a nincompoop and utter failure at everything he does"....totally contradicting the "He has a sinister plan to kill your granny and feed her corpse to his ACORN minions" Be Afraid, Very Afraid stuff."-----Posted by Mask at 10/05/2009 @ 3:01pm

    Posted by Mask at 10/06/2009 @ 07:12am

17. Mask, you've been posting on the nation, virtually daily, for at least as long as I've been signed up (which is about 5 years). You "debate" with the same handful of people the entire time...

    and you pat yourself on the back for seeing a trend?

    you've put in as much time with these people as any friend you may have in real life.

    Posted by urmygyro at 10/06/2009 @ 08:00am

18. Posted by urmygyro at 10/06/2009 @ 08:00am

    I KNEW you were going to say that!

    heheh

    Posted by Mask at 10/06/2009 @ 09:02am

19. Posted by urmygyro at 10/06/2009 @ 08:00am

    I KNEW you were going to say that!

    heheh

    Posted by Mask at 10/06/2009 @ 09:02am

    Chuckle...

    I'm with twillie on the wait and see attitude for the fighting corruption part.

    Posted by cka2nd at 10/06/2009 @ 09:13am

20. Posted by cka2nd at 10/06/2009 @ 09:13am

    Always tough. Given "corruption" typically equals "money"....they call you a "Communist" when you try.

    Posted by Mask at 10/06/2009 @ 11:36am

21. As a fellow Hellene, I think my patrioti, Maria, is correct. This is a uniquely Greek election. Its impact elsewhere is minimal. I truly believe most elections are decided on local, not international, issues, and Greece's election is no different.

    Posted by trabaris at 10/06/2009 @ 11:56am

22. Merkel's victory was hardly a victory for the right. The Conseervative Party got it's worst showing since the war. Der Lienke, the extreme left, increased it's showing to over 12% and the Green's also got their best showing ever.

    teutonic correction alert:

    it would have to be Die Linke.

    Posted by emile duBois at 10/06/2009 @ 3:01pm

23. It is my understanding that fellow greeks voted anti-Nea Dimokratia (ND) & not pro-PASOK.

    ND screwed up in ways unimaginable to anyone born after '74. It's hard to even recall *one* service to the public they managed to pull off (oh yeah, they combated bureaucracy somewhat). To top it all off, their disintegration helped the populist extreme right get into the parliament (hooray). Not to mention that we are now privileged enough to have a neonazi gang (active in the recent pogroms against immigrants, under police cover, your article says nothing about) posing as a proper political party. Ms. Margaronis could have also mentioned that the ND leader, Mr. Karamanlis, resigned on the night of the elections - he was followed by former Minister of Finance & the czar behind the tourist development plan, both of which announced that they're ending their political careers. Or that the government had announced the construction of detention centers for immigrants, in clear violation of european law.

    PASOK, on the other hand, is the devil everyone knows - & I'll pretty much leave it at that. As twillie wrote above, the 'We'll fight corruption!' banner has been flying high for ages - here, too - & both parties have been using it. Also, & although Ms. Margaronis has a good understanding of what PASOK did before 2005 in the economic arena, she does not mention that people are getting poorer & poorer & drastically so. An entire new generation of workers has been thrown to the dumpster, together with their rights & benefits, & - to a large extent - this is what powers the economic growth the country has been experiencing. (Or at least people perceive it so.) & this was PASOK's doing.

    Finally, what PASOK has to do with socialism anymore is anyone's guess...

    Posted by athenray at 10/06/2009 @ 4:38pm

24. greece socialist who cares.the politicians will make promises, hand out some cash and when the econmy continues to suck they will be voted out..greece is not a major player so really a mute point.

    Posted by diazguma at 10/06/2009 @ 5:41pm

25. I wondered when the nutso Yanks were going to start whining about a 'socialist' Government in Greece. From this long-time grecophile's viewpoint, at the very least PASOK stand a better chance of battling the corruption that mired ND, and however it plays at least they seem to be approaching government from a position of principle. At the very very least, a 'socialist' government in Greece should scare off tiresome colonialist estadounidense tourists, and give the British Daily Mail and Sun readers a bit of a scare. God knows my island could do with fewer of those wandering the streets in the summer!

    Yia sou apo Skopelos.

    Posted by jackheron at 10/07/2009 @ 03:55am

26. Posted by jackheron at 10/07/2009 @ 03:55am

    Isn't tourism a chief component of the Greek economy....and a reduction in it would cause hardship even unemployment???

    Posted by Mask at 10/07/2009 @ 07:11am

27. Mask, you've been posting on the nation, virtually daily, for at least as long as I've been signed up (which is about 5 years). You "debate" with the same handful of people the entire time...

    Posted by urmygyro at 10/06/2009 @ 08:00am | ignore this person | warn this person

    I've been reading the Nation for about the same amount of time and I've noticed the same thing.

    But, you know what? For what it's worth, I actually really enjoy reading Mask's comments. Ha, in fact he's often the only commenter I even bother reading. Most of you guys on this site take yourselves so goddamn seriously, as if making semi-anonymous comments on this site will really change anyone's mind, let alone even create any social ripples.

    Sure, occasionally I try to follow along with Anti and Happy and Pasture's loopy reasoning, even sometimes following Anti's links to his right-wing propaganda veiled as legitimate journalism, (especially when it comes to Latin American issues where my background lies) but rarely I have neither the time nor the energy to devote to debunking their misunderstandings (at best) nor outright distortions (at worst) especially when the possible payoff is so minimal.

    At least Mask has the good sense to maintain a good sense of humor while cutting through their right-wing BS and pointing out their hypocrisy. So again, for what it's worth, keep up the good work Mask- at least one lefty elitist intellectual on this site appreciates it (though I actually don't know if that helps your cause or hurts it, hehe).

    Posted by Mariner84 at 10/07/2009 @ 10:55pm

28. Posted by Mariner84 at 10/07/2009 @ 10:55pm

    Oh, dear, I wish you hadn't done that....

    you have no idea how upset that is going to get urmygyro now. Somebody go grab the virtual reality tranquilizer gun please.

    heheh

    Posted by Mask at 10/08/2009 @ 07:43am

29. GREETINGS GREECE, FROM GREEK ROYAL YVETTE BARBARA BALDWIN, I PRESENTLY RESIDE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. WHENEVER POSSIBLE I READ AND WATCH THE VARIOUS EVENTS THAT CONCERN THE COUNTRY OF GREECE AND ITS CITIZENS; THE ARTICLE.... GREECE GOES SOCIALIST.....IS VERY INTERESTING....IM CURIOUS TO KNOW WHAT THE CONCERNS OF THE CITIZENS MAY BE...REGARDING...GREECE AS A SOCIALIST GOVERNMENT........

    Posted by elohim3 at 10/08/2009 @ 2:33pm

30. GREETINGS GREECE, FROM GREEK ROYAL YVETTE BARBARA BALDWIN, I PRESENTLY RESIDE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. WHENEVER POSSIBLE I READ AND WATCH THE VARIOUS EVENTS THAT CONCERN THE COUNTRY OF GREECE AND ITS CITIZENS; THE ARTICLE.... GREECE GOES SOCIALIST.....IS VERY INTERESTING....IM CURIOUS TO KNOW WHAT THE CONCERNS OF THE CITIZENS MAY BE...REGARDING...GREECE AS A SOCIALIST GOVERNMENT........***ANY MESSAGES TO MY ATTENTION MAY BE SENT VIA....GREECE PERMANENT MISSIONS TO THE UNITED NATIONS....IN NEW YORK......

    SINCERELY, YVETTE BARBARA BALDWIN *****

    Posted by elohim3 at 10/08/2009 @ 2:35pm

31. Posted by elohim3 at 10/08/2009 @ 2:35pm

    Little know historical fact....

    the downfall of Greece to the Roman Empire was primarily due to the Roman invention of lower case letters!

    True story!

    heheh

    Posted by Mask at 10/08/2009 @ 2:57pm

32. Posted by Mariner84 at 10/07/2009 @ 10:55pm

    Oh, dear, I wish you hadn't done that....

    you have no idea how upset that is going to get urmygyro now. Somebody go grab the virtual reality tranquilizer gun please.

    heheh

    Posted by Mask at 10/08/2009 @ 07:43am

    a leftist applauds Mask, what a shock (romflol)

    Posted by antisocialist at 10/08/2009 @ 9:59pm

33. Posted by elohim3 at 10/08/2009 @ 2:35pm

    Tune in to Roosh. Maybe he'll have a take on the socialist takeover for you.

    Posted by Sorelish at 10/08/2009 @ 11:10pm

34. Posted by antisocialist at 10/08/2009 @ 9:59pm

    Ben Franklin said that, right, Larry?

    Posted by Mask at 10/09/2009 @ 10:59am