The Right Moment: A Greece Timeline.

Romanos

The Right Moment: A Greece Timeline.


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“Greece, Bulgaria and Russia just signed the agreement for the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline. The pipeline will be later complimented with pipelines across Greece and towards Italy, which will directly connect Russia with Western Europe through Bulgaria and Greece. This is an agreement that radically changes the geopolitics in the region and strategically elevates the importance of Greece. It is rightfully considered as a huge victory for the government and the Prime Minister.”

ANT1 Network News, March 17th 2007, 8.05 PM

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“I have asked the President to dissolve the Parliament and have new elections. This due to the need to the refresh the government's mandate to solve issues on education, economy and the ratification of the 2008 budget.”

Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis, August 17th 2007

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"Huge fires have erupted across the Peloponnese and in Parnitha, immediately on the boundary of Athens. The damages to the nature as well as property are yet to be estimated."

SKAI TV News, August 23th 2007

“I am declaring a state of emergency for all fifty two perfectures of the country.”

Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis, August 25th 2007, 11.50 APM.

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“General Wind makes the work of fire extinction difficult […] This is an asymmetrical threat.”

Vyron Polydoras, Minister of Public Order, August 27th 2007.


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“Between June and yesterday, a total of 84 people died due to the fires that shattered the country. This was both outrageous, unprecedented and avoidable – many questions have been raised: Who started the fires? What were their motives? What of the thousands who have been left homelessness? And, most of all, why did the state -the government indeed- responded so inadequetedly to this national emergency? “

Kathimerini Daily Newspaper, September 4th 2007.


"[...] But that so many people would be so idiots as to believe that forest fires was a work of the anarchists (minister of Exterior Affairs), dark forces of destabilisation (deputy minister of Exterior Affairs), or UCK agents of CIA ("revelation" of "Tomorrow" paper), I would not believe. Not to mention Polydoras' statement that there is a general 'Wind' that determines if and how fires are extinguished. [...]

Blog 'Leftist Window', September 6th 2007.

-If kids had different textbooks, they would learn history a different way.
-Which means?
-They would learn that, in 1936, [Metaxas] declared martial law using as an excuse the forest fires in Attica. When you see forest fires, junta is coming. Then, it was with tanks, now it is coming with euros. Junta is on its way.

Liana Kanelli, KKE MP, on Lakis Lazopoulos’ satirical TV show, September 5th 2007.
 

Romanos

This is my attemp at a timeline. The PoD has not occured so far. It's not too interesting atm, I'm just trying to get the ball rolling. I'll try to use many different ways of story telling, including personal narratives, in medias res and others. Any suggestions, questions or objections are more than welcome. Thanks for reading.
 

Tongera

A new Greek Junta? Nice, I like so far.

I also find the lack of Greek TL's on this site slightly disturbing. :p
 

Tongera

When I first read this, I kept thinking it had something to do with that discussion about Izmir that was had a while ago.

Guess not.
 

Romanos

Chapter 2: A Scandal That Wasn't Meant To Be​

Alter Channel, September 9th, 17.55 PM

BREAKING NEWS
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Government official attempts suicide!
Ministry of Culture undersecretary Christos Zahopoulos attempted to commit suicide about 15 minutes ago, when he fell from the balcony of his house. His condition is critical, according to first reports; the motives of this attempted suicide are still unclear.


Avriani newspaper, September 10th
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ZAHOPOULOS BLACKMAILED?
A sex scandal has been emerging during the last hours, as it seems that the reason for the undersecretary’s failed suicide attempt is blackmail from unknown persons, who, as it turns out, have DVD tapes of erotic content in which Zahopoulos is included.
The government denies all allegations and the Government Spokesman said ‘The matter will be thoroughly investigated by the Judiciary’.
Journalistic research during the past few hours, however, seems to be revealing that the blackmail had to do with illegal employment of a number of persons to the Ministry of Culture; but there are indications that there are more shady deals which have not come to light yet.


SKAI BREAKING NEWS, September 11th
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NEW FOREST FIRES IN ATHENS, THESSALONIKI, PELOPONNESE

“Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, we’re getting information about new forest fires erupting in both the capital and Thessaloniki, as well as Achaea in the Peloponnese. The Fire Department has been trying to extinguish the fires in the outskirts of both cities, having more luck there rather than in the already damaged prefecture of Achaea. The fire in Athens is very close to inhabited areas and we’re getting information that the state and municipal authorities are evacuating the nearby residents. We’re coming back shortly, with more information about this unexpected turn of events.”


Kathimerini.gr, September 12th

...The public has grown even more restless and angry with the government’s inadequate reaction to the fires since August, when more than 80 people were killed in the midst of fire, and billions of property were destroyed, not to mention the major power outages across Athens. Government sources indicate that there may be “outward” forces that have been putting fires across the country this year, and the last one as well, implying a plot destabilise the government. Such allegations are met with suspicion and disbelief by some, but New Democracy people, as well as LAOS agree and stress the danger of leftist anarchists. PASOK and KKE have not commented officially, while SYRIZA denies any accusations that its own people had anything to do with the fires.


September 14th, politika.blogspot.gr
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Evaluating last night's debate

As the ratings last night’s debate came in, one thing seemed to be certain: not a great many people watched. Surely, a quite big number of TV viewers turned to the debate, but they weren’t as many as last time, three years ago. And it is no accident. Between the scandals of the Karamanlis government, the forest fires that showed once again the inability of the government to tackle almost any serious problem, the low level of the PASOK leadership, the corruption of the two main parties, and the lack of viability of any small party or leader thereof, it’s not hard to see why people feel indifference to disgust at the country’s political system.

Kostas Karamanlis, the Prime Minister since 2004, stressed many times over that compensation will be given to the victims of the fire. Other than that, he bragged about his supposedly successful efforts to tackle corruption (I’m not sure many were convinced) and his foreign policy – opening to Russia, honest friendship with Turkey, cooperation with the Cypriot government in solving the Cyprus Question, efforts to bring Bulgaria and other neighbors to the European Union and tough stance towards the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. He once again stressed the need to amend the Constitution – the very controversial amendment of Article 16 – to allow the opening of private universities.

Georgios Panadreou, the leader of PASOK, was simply not convincing at all. His supporters say that it’s not just the oratorical skills that one should look for in a politician; attention should be given to one’s proposed policies. Panadreou has vowed to overturn many of the current government’s policies, namely the re-imposition of the levy on very high pensions and the opening of private universities. He was certainly not as good when answering foreign policy questions, as his answers were neither specific enough, nor substantive enough, nor did they give any clues about PASOK’s views on foreign affairs – which, it seems, will be on the voters’ minds on poll day.

Aleka Papariga, the Secretary-General of the KKE said nothing more than was expected of her and she was generally viewed as boring, outdated in her views, as well as antiquated in her manner of speech. She doesn’t to do more anyway, as KKE has always been a “closed”, so to speak, party, with the vast majority of its voters being die-hard old-guard supporters; they don’t need or expect to attract “outsiders” from a good debate performance.

Alekos Alavanos, well, was pretty much a non-factor; and not unexpectedly. Not only is he not convincing, but he’s also coming from a political formation that few people know what exactly is – just Synaspismos, the old eurocommunist splinter of KKE, or a coalition of many small-to-fringe radical leftist parties? Maybe that’s why Alavanos was not able to answer specifically any question: he struggles, along with the rest of the party, to find a middle way between the positions of each compenent party of SYRIZA. Frankly, it’s obvious that most of its voters will cast their vote in protest of the governing parties. That’s not to say that there isn’t any substance in their platform – but it seems to be completely out of touch with reality, just like KKE.

Giorgos Karatzaferis. Need I say more? I honestly can’t make up my mind if he’s only a bigoted populist racist, or he’s also a self-deluded person who thinks he’s the messiah of the nation who will take up Jesus Christ’s sword, fend off invaders from all sides and places of the planet, submit the country to our “Russian Orthodox Brothers” and save civilization from the “evil West”. It is true that the country has foreign policy problems to solve, but Karatzaferis is the man you want to get more problems, rather than solve any existing ones. Hate towards immigrants, legal or not, is of course one of the top issues for him and his party, and by “issues” I mean “things to bark about, offending people who don’t vote and won’t be voting any time soon” – and the debate was not an exception to this rule. His cosy relationship with the Church, which he implicitly underlines every times he opens his mouth, including last night, will likely help him get enough old voters to pass the threshold for the first time.

Conclusively, no participant’s performance was far from expectations, but there were moments which gave most leaders some points with particular segments of the electorate. It remains to be seen how will this debate define the electoral result, but no big surprises should be expected based on last night.



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Two PoDs occured: First, a scandal that broke a few months after the 2007 election, broke ITTL a few days before it. The second PoD is new fires breaking out in the two largest cities of the country in a quite large region.

Coming next, the 2007 Election.
 
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Romanos

Chapter 3: The 2007 Election
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It was a brilliant sunny day in the capital and across the country. The summer was over, Septemper had come, but the weather never gets too bad until mid-November. The country was in election mode for the last weeks, and this Sunday was the day that would show the result of the month-long campaign.

Following a tradition that’s in place since the first election to ever happen in this country, the last two days before the election were devoted to the last big rallies of the parties which took part. In stadiums, in central squares, in every available place, the supporters of the two large parties, ND and PASOK, gathered and listened to speeches given by the leaders of each party. The crowds were delirious and energized by the passionate words of the leader, the echoes of the crowd, the colourfulness of the party flags, by a certain something in the air; the smell of the impeding victory.

In cafes and in houses, in family gatherings and in tables, in phone calls and in every shop, the prime topic of discussion was nothing more than the Sunday vote. Passionate PASOK supporters recalled of the great days of Andreas Papandreou, who gave the country back to the people, who at once had defeated the Right – for the first time in the country’s history – and brought social equality to society. ND militants dismissed the praises about the corrupt and populist Papandreou and never missed an opportunity to point out that his son, Georgios, who wished to become PM, had all the negative aspects of his father’s personality, but none of the positive ones.

It was, as it has happened every time, a never-ending debate. Partisanship had been trying to make a shy come-back since the apolitisation of the 90s, and this election seemed to show that it had truly come back alive and well.

On Sunday, voters finally went to the polls; schools that is, since time immemorial – and guarded by police, too. Many citizens who lived in Athens and other big cities had to go back to their original homelands in the countryside and vote there. There was no problem about that – it’s affordable for most, enjoyable for many and free for some, provided they were important parts of the party machine in their respective constituency, in which case expenses were paid by their party.

Somewhere in an Athenian suburb, a mother with her child left her house to go and vote in the nearby primary school. As they were passing the great Byzantine church which provided much-needed cool shade in the head of that September afternoon, the curious boy thought he’d ask a pretty obvious question.

-So what will you vote?
-I’m not gonna tell you.
-Why?
-Because the vote is secret.
-I guess that means you’ll vote what you said you always vote then.
-…
-C’mon, you can’t believe that after all that’s happened, he’s good, can you?
-And what else do you want me to vote?
-I don’t know…

It was a common argument among voters of the two main parties. There was simply no alternative. That’s how it’s always been, that’s how it is, and that’s how it will always be. You may know your guy is incompetent, you may know he stinks (but you’ll never admit it to others), but you’ll never vote for the other guys, because they’re much, much worse. And the rest of the parties are just a joke. But something should change, had to change. But there was no change in sight. So you were stuck with these modesties, and hope they don’t screw things too much.

But a screw was to happen that night. Or, to be exact, it was happening for 12 hours, from the time the polls opened until the poll closed; but it wouldn’t be revealed until the first exit polls came out…

16:59 PM, NET channel
“…As I was saying, the latest scandal, together with the forest fires that devastated the country contributed to the fatigue of the outgoing government. But what really paralyzed the government was the students’ effort to stop the privatization of the universities, which the government hopes to accomplish through amending the Constitution.”

“Those PASOK guys are responsible for this! They have flip-flopeed on all the issues and they wouldn’t miss a cha-“

“I’m sorry I have to interrupt you, gentlemen, but we have news. We now have the first results of the exit polls. These are preliminary results and we have to be very cautious about the final result. We will now show you the percentages for each party… 50% of the exit poll results are in.

New Democracy has come first, with 39.5 to 40.5%. The Panhellenic Socialist Movement is second, with 37.6 to 39%. The Communist Party of Greece is third, with 8 to 9%. The Coalition of the Radical Left has come fourth, with 5 to 6%. Finally, the Popular Orthodox Rally seems to enter into Parliament for the first time, with a result of 3.5 to 4.5%.

We’ll have the full results of the exit poll in about three hours. Official tallies have just started coming in and we’ll see how this develops.

Mr. Minister, your first comment about the result of the exit poll?”

“Well, as you just said, these are only the first results and we expect to see them changed. But let me just say that New Democracy will do everything it can so that stability remains in the country…”
“By these results, your party doesn’t seem to get the needed 151 seats to form a government. What scenario is the ND contemplating if this is confirmed?"

“Listen, I don’t know, we’ll have to see how these results will finally shape… We can't say anything about that at this time.”

21:45 PM, MEGA TV
"Okay, these are the full results. For the first time since 1990, no party has won an absolute majority in parliament and this is the lowest vote percentage for the first party since 1951, according to our research.



We'll see what the next move of New Democracy will be, but the sure thing is that the President of the Republic will give the mandate to try and form a government to Kostas Karamanlis tomorrow, and the Prime Minister will have to face some difficult decisions in the next few days."

BBC World News, 23:45 PM Athens Time
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“Ladies and Gentlemen, good evening.

Today’s election in Greece produced an unexpected result, which may bring instability in the country’s politics. The ruling party, New Democracy, has failed to win a majority in Parliament. Third parties have seen gains in their votes as well as their parliamentary strength, while the two main parties have both suffered losses…”
 

Romanos

Thanks the both of you for following through :)

@dan, the PoD happened in the second post as I wrote in that post, I'll try to make more clear what's OTL and what's not from the next update. IOTL, ND got a majority of 2, ITTL it's a hung parliament.

Any comment on writing style, the course of the TL, anything?


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