From Bad to Worse

Greece has gone from bad government to what amounts to no government, which is disappointing to just about everybody in the nation that claims to have invented democracy. The Sunday election results represent a defeat for both major parties and the risk of inflated influence for a Communist-led coalition of the far left.

The biggest disappointment was suffered by Constantine Mitsotakis and his New Democracy party of the center-right, which failed to translate a golden opportunity into a parliamentary majority. There was faint consolation in winning the largest block of seats in Parliament because the 144 vote plurality is seven short of a working majority. Mitsotakis would like to put together a coalition with the far left long enough to clean the corruption out of government, which means cleaning out his principal rivals, the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) led by Andreas Papandreou. But that is most unlikely.

Papandreou did his best--or worst--for the new party. The corruption that has eroded his ownparty, after eight years of majority control of Parliament, was compounded by his own flagrant romantic affair and untidy divorce proceedings. The nation was clearly suffering from a lack of direction that made worse its already difficult economic situation. With all of that, Greek voters still gave PASOK 39% of the votes and 125 seats with the possibility of constructing a coalition with the Communist Alliance, whose 31 seats would provide a parliamentary majority of 156.

From the point of view of American strategic concerns and the interests of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the prospect of a coalition dependent on Stalinist-led Communists is not attractive. Papandreou’s uncertain and usually hostile negotiations on renewing U.S. military base rights contrasted with a firm commitment from the New Democracy party to Europe and its economic and military institutions. Now there is the likelihood of an even weaker hand on the wheel, with little hope that yet another election would provide a firmer grip.