The Right Moment: A Greece Timeline.
- Thread starter Romanos
- Start date
He's not gonna like it, that's for sure.
That's a biq question mark, as back then it was still the furthest right party that's widely known and Karamanlis and his people are from the more moderate wing of ND.
Chapter 4: Just Another Political Game
September 17th, 2007
NOW WHAT?
We knew this election would be close and we knew New Democracy would probably suffer losses. But we couldn’t have known the ramifications of the forest fires of September and the Zahopoulos scandal in the electoral result as polls may not be publicized in the last two weeks before the election.
Now, however, we have to cook with the food we have. The Prime Minister will go to the Presidential Palace in the afternoon to get the government formation mandate from the President of the Republic and he will have 72 hours to find a persuade a party leader that will form a government with his party. We remind you that this is the first time that this happens since the instability of 1989-1990.
Kostas Karamanlis to Journalists: We’ll do whatever is needed to keep the country’s stability
While being questioned during his exit from the Presidential Palace, Karamanlis did not answer directly to any question regarding the potential political alliances he will try to forge in order to form a new government. However, he did say that he and his party will do everything in their power to avoid political instability, adding that he did not particularly like the idea of a new election. He now has three days to make a deal with any party to form a government, or get their abstentions in the vote of confidence – in order to succeed in a vote of confidence, he only has to get more yes votes than no ones, provided that the yes votes are at least 120, which is assured, since his party has 144 seats in the newly elected parliament.
PM Faces Almost Impossible Task
There is much speculation that the Prime Minister, Kostas Karamanlis, will make a deal with LAOS (Popular Orthodox Rally) to create a coalition government with them.
A ND-LAOS coalition government will not be welcome by the more moderate wing of ND – to which the PM and his cabinet subscribe, or by the hardcore LAOS people. LAOS and their leader, Karatzaferis, has been dismissed as a fringe nationalist or even crypto-fascist – he has even been compared to Hitler. Allying with such a political formation could prove to be a PR disaster for New Democracy, which can arguably not win without support from the centrist voters. Plus, we don’t really know (and most of us don’t even want to know) what kind of policies would such a government pursue. The extremist stance LAOS has advocated in foreign policy will create big problems for the government if it is to be actually followed, while domestic issues like immigration and the relations of the church and the state will be another cause of rift.
Last, but very far from being least, the true issue here is the newly-elected LAOS MPs. There are rumours that many of them have been active members of far-right organizations that appeared following the restoration of democracy. Many citizens were upset that such people have entered Parliament – them becoming members of the Government as secretaries and Ministers will be a shock that will guarantee public outlast against New Democracy and Karamanlis personally.
September 19th, 2007
Karamanlis Struck Deal with Karatzaferis
We’re getting reports from ND Headquarters that the Prime Minister has finally struck a deal with the leader of LAOS. Details will follow in just a few moments…
Yeah, it seems we’re not talking about a full coalition government here, but a vote of confidence deal and support on a case-by-case basis. What seems quite clear is that the government itself will be composed only - or mostly - by ND people. We’ll follow up with more details.
September 20th, 2007
Prime Minister to get Government Formation Mandate by President of the Republic
The Prime Minister has just entered the Presidential Palace to inform the President of the Republic that he has forged a deal with LAOS that will enable to form a government – his second in a row and the first of the kind since 1963, when the Centre Union, led by Georgios Papandreou, grandfather of the current leader of PASOK, formed a minority government supported by the United Democratic Left. This precedent may not forecast a bright future for the next government, whatever that may turn out to be, as back in '63, Papandreou quickly had the King dissolve the Parliament, leading to the political instability of the Iouliana* and the eventual coup of 21 April.
Karamanlis is expected to form his government in the next few days and appear in Parliament for the Policy Statement of the government and the subsequent vote of confidence.
September 24th, 2007
Basic Members of Cabinet Leaked
Ladies and Gentlemen, the most prominent members of the next government have been leaked to the news outlets. If we can see the card we prepared... yes, this is it.
Prime Minister: Kostas Karamanlis (2004-)
Minister of Interior: Prokopis Pavlopoulos (2004-)
Minister of Economy and Finance: Giorgos Alogoskoufis (2004-)
Minister of Exterior: Dora Bakoyianni (2006-)
Deputy Minister of Exterior: Petros Doukas (2007-)
Minister of National Defence: Panos Panagiotopoulos (2007-)
Deputy Minister of Defence: Makis Voridis (2007-) (LAOS)
Minister of Justice: Nikos Dendias (2007-)
Deputy Minister of Justice: Dimitra Arapoglou (2007-) (LAOS)
Minister of National Education and Religions: Evripidis Stylianidis (2006-)
So What’s The Deal?
After three days of talks between ND and LAOS, a deal has been struck and we now have all the information about it:
-2 LAOS MPs become members of the cabinet. Makis Voridis will be appointed to Deputy Minister of Defence, while the deaf MP Dimitra Arapoglou will be appointed to Deputy Minister of Justice.
-These 2 MPs-Deputy Ministers will be voting in favour of the government in votes of confidence, no confidence, budget and important bills. The rest of the LAOS will abstain in votes of confidence and will vote on a case-by-case basis in the rest of the bills.
-LAOS will not press for any specific agenda, but will be supporting measures it agrees with.
This is a win-win situation for everyone, and this is unexpected. Everyone in ND though a coalition government – or any kind of agreement with LAOS – would be a poisoned chalice. LAOS for its part did not want to be associated directly with the government and the attrition that comes at the end of the second government of the same party – not to mention the scandals that have come to light and others that might be publicised in the future.
October 4th, 2007
Government Wins Vote of Confidence 146-145
The Second Government of Kostas Karamanlis has just won the vote of confidence in Parliament by the narrowest of margins – just one vote. The yays came from ND (144 votes) plus the two LAOS Deputy Ministers per the agreement of Karamanlis with LAOS leader Karatzaferis. The rest of LAOS abstained, again as stibulated by the gentlemen’s agreement that was made in the aftermath of the election. PASOK, KKE and SYRIZA all denounced the ‘unholy alliance’ between the two parties and specifically attacked the Prime Minister for letting ‘far-right’ LAOS in government just after they entered Parliament. Meanwhile, Makis Voridis’ past is the subject of attacks and accusation by all the parties of the opposition, as he allegedly originates from nationalistic or even neo-fascist groups with cozy relations with the former colonels.
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*Iouliana = July Events. Basically the King brought about the fall of the Centre Union by forcing the Prime Minister, Georgios Papandreou, to resign due to events that had happened from 1961 until then, then splitting the party through the Apostates (Renegades) using all kinds of Byzantine intrigue. It's basically a fascinating story concerning intelligence, and attempted coup, an actual coup, a contreversial and power-hungry young Monarch and much more.
As a general note, what happened year was that the PM successfully negotiated that one LAOS MP that would become cabinet member would be a moderate and more liked politician (Arapoglou) and only one hardliner would become a member of government (Voridis), but the party at-large didn't form a coalition government with ND and thus they get to alternate between playing government and opposition at will.
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Kostas does the unthinkable?
Well, that definitely makes the TL all the more interesting, for sure. One now has to wonder how short this is going to be with potentially constant pressure from LAOS on the Government.
Yeah, it will cause some nice butteflies that will make everything more interesting.
I think the next update will ecompass the whole of 2008 so as to finally bring us to more interesting times, maybe some more interest will be shown towards the TL.
Btw, any kind of comment like "My god, I have no earthly idea what you're writing about" or "This is one crappy TL" will be most welcome by anyone else who may have seen any piece of this.
Yeah, it will cause some nice butteflies that will make everything more interesting.
Definitely. I would not want to be the one with LAOS breathing down my neck.
Whatever works with you works with me.
Chapter 5: Life As Usual
Pages 63-64, At the Crossroads of a Nation, Kostas Karamanlis
We now had finally formed a government, even though I was not entirely satisfied with what I had in my hands. The cabinet members of my own party were simply not the most competent people in the world, although I always had and will always have enormous amount of respect for each and every one of them, and the vast majority of them showed their loyalty to me in the darkest hour of my political life. But I will discuss this when its time comes, for the time being we had a fresh government, with two junior LAOS members, trying to fix some things in this country that desperately needed fixing.
As for our colleagues from the Popular Orthodox Really, I only have good things to say about them. Dimitra Arapoglou who, despite her deafness, was competent in her job and started numerous initiatives to help the disadvantaged of our country, certainly gave credibility to her party and its leader. Makis Voridis is of course a controversial figure for his past, but I always thought that we mustn’t pay too much attention to the past when we have serious needs in the present. He definetely helped in the Ministry of Defence with the armament programmes and the finding of good officers for promotion, despite of what was claimed by the left and some in the press.
11 October 2007
Dissent Growing in PASOK
19 October 2007
Floods Across the Country
Following last week’s heavy rains across large parts of the continental country, Northern Greece and Attica in particular, both cities and fields have been flooded, causing great economic damage in the agricultural sector, not to mention power outages and traffic halt in the road and railroad network. The tram and metro systems of Athens were forced to suspend their operations, causing the paralysis of traffic in the capital.
28 October 2007
Ochi Day Celebrated
13 Novemeber 2007
PASOK Leadership Election
From left to right:Venizelos, Loverdos*, Xrysochoidis*, Diamantopoulou, Skandalidis
Today is the moment of truth for the Main Opposition, as all the party members and friends of the party will elect the new leader among several candidates, including the current leader Giorgos Papandreou.
There is discontent after September’s disappointing defeat, which gave the opportunity to a large field of prominent party officials to put their hat in the contest against the incumbent leader, the son of the iconic figure of PASOK Andreas Papadnreou, who founded the party and led it to great victories from 1981 until the mid 90s. The legacy itself of the father of Giorgos is a strong shield against leadership challenges, but that shield has been wavering since September 16th. And that is why enough signatures were collected by senior party officials – as required by the party constitution, ironically amended on the initiative of Giorgos Papandreou, to call a ‘snap’ party leadership election.
There are the contenders for the succession (apart from Papandreou himself):
Evangelos Venizelos: Member of Parliament for Thessaloniki A, He is a strong figure in the party and leads his own faction which is second only to the ‘presidential’ faction of Papandreou. Originally a constitutional lawyer, he has been in PASOK governments since 1993 and has held several Ministerial posts. He has lead the anti-Papadreou ‘movement’ since the latter’s assumption of the leadership in 2004.
Kostas Skandalidis, originally from the island of Kos, is a former MP and former minister and current municipal councilor In Athens, having lost the 2006 Athens municipal election and leading the opposition there, he doesn’t have a following as large as most of the other candidates. He is rumored to have the implicit support of Kostas Simitis, former Prime Minister and leader of the party.
Anna Diamantopoulou, former deputy minister and former European Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, is the last addition to the race and surprised many when she announced her candidacy. She is considered and self-described as neoliberal and caused great controversy when she proposed that the English language be established as the second official language of the country. She was also in charge of the political programme of PASOK for the last election.
*Both Loverdos and Xrisochoidis, who have their followings and considerable influence in PASOK, were presumed to be potential candidates as well but eventually decided not to run.
Leader Not Elected in PASOK – Second Round Next Week
In the vote that concluded two hours ago, in which about 1 million members and friends of PASOK voted for the leadership of the country, we are getting these are the results. Final results will be available tomorrow morning, but the numbers are not expected to change and are as follows:
Giorgos Papandreou 45%
Evangelos Venizelos 42%
Kostas Skandalidis 9%
Anna Diamantopoulou 4%
As per the PASOK constitution, since nobody passed the 50%+1 threshold, the candidates with the two highest number of votes, Papandreou and Venizelos, will compete in a runoff election next week.
20 November 2007
Papandreou re-elected President of PASOK in Narrow Vote
The polls having closed and most of the results counted, we are now ready to project that Giorgos Papandreou has been re-elected to the leadership of PASOK with 52.5% of the votes, while Evangelos Venizelos has obtained the remaining 47.5%. However, the closeness of the result has some people wondering how firm Papandreou’s grip on the leadership can be, when he faces strong opposition within his own party as proved by the two votes last week and today, especially Venizelos who seems to be leading a movement contrary to Papandreou and his people.
20 December 2007
Police Raid in Zoniana, Crete Revails Guns and Cannabis
Three policemen were injured earlier today in the police raid which took place in Zoniana, in Rethymno, Crete whose objective was to find guns and destroy cannabis plantations in and around the village. Gunshots were fired against the policemen, but the raid was overall a success, as numerous guns that were located in warehouses in the villages were and seized and cannabis plantations throughout the fields in the area were destroyed. There has been a general increase in the activity of the police throughout Crete and the Peloponnese to destroy drug plantations and, in the case of Crete, illegaly owned guns, with partial success so far. In many places, including Zoniana, the locals have tried to keep police away from their village, but the Ministry of Interior has been proactive in the past few months to curb such criminal activity in the region.
28 December 2007
New National Airspace Intrusion by Turkish F-16s
New, 'festive', provocation today as two Turkish F-16s flew over the Fournoi island, Ikaria, and engaged in a dogfight with Greek fighters which had taken off from Crete to intercept them. At the same time, the Deputy Minister of Defence Makis Voridis was in nearby Ikaria to visit the troops there. The intrusions by the neighbours' Air Force have not been interrupted, while NOTAs issued by both the Greek and the Turkish Aviation Authorities often engage in a war of words regarding international treaties and conventions. We remind that last year, a Greek pilot was killed in a dogfight near the island of Karpathos.
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In OTL, Papandreou got about 55% in the first round of the vote, while Diamantopoulou did not enter the race. But now PASOK was defeated even more badly and there is an even bigger backlash in the party. That's a full lid for 2007.
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Were there floods around the same time in 2007 as well in OTL? Because I'm now kicking myself in the arse saying to myself "how could I have forgotten those?"
The PASOK election sounds more or less OTL, which makes sense seeing as how it was Giorgos Papandreou that eventually became PM for a short time in OTL. (Maybe not this time, though, if the butterflies start flapping like crazy.)
All in all, yet another excellent update, Romanos. (Question: will the Kallikratis plan get brought up in TTL, or will something else happen? Because I think we can revive that federalization plan you proposed in one of the Greece threads in Chat. Amongst others, if you want to talk about it via PM.)
The PASOK election sounds more or less OTL, which makes sense seeing as how it was Giorgos Papandreou that eventually became PM for a short time in OTL. (Maybe not this time, though, if the butterflies start flapping like crazy.)
All in all, yet another excellent update, Romanos. (Question: will the Kallikratis plan get brought up in TTL, or will something else happen? Because I think we can revive that federalization plan you proposed in one of the Greece threads in Chat. Amongst others, if you want to talk about it via PM.)
Were there floods around the same time in 2007 as well in OTL? Because I'm now kicking myself in the arse saying to myself "how could I have forgotten those?"
The PASOK election sounds more or less OTL, which makes sense seeing as how it was Giorgos Papandreou that eventually became PM for a short time in OTL. (Maybe not this time, though, if the butterflies start flapping like crazy.)
All in all, yet another excellent update, Romanos. (Question: will the Kallikratis plan get brought up in TTL, or will something else happen? Because I think we can revive that federalization plan you proposed in one of the Greece threads in Chat. Amongst others, if you want to talk about it via PM.)
Yes, the floods happened OTL. I really wouldn't think those would be reported outside Greece, as they're not exactly a once in a lifetime phenomenon in Europe.
As for the other stuff, PM is on its way.
Yes, the floods happened OTL. I really wouldn't think those would be reported outside Greece, as they're not exactly a once in a lifetime phenomenon in Europe.
I guess. Still, that would be a nasty shock for anyone, especially any government.
Chapter 6: Thickening The Plot
Pages 47-52, State of Confusion. Asterios Doukakis. (2014, re-published 2019)
2008 would prove to be more eventful than most imagined. Not just in Greece and not just in Europe. The whole world would find out that prosperity is never a given reality or a reasonable future. And it would also be understood that a society that pretends cannot hope to be safe; that a people that does not hear its youth cannot expect to dictate it.
It started as a year like all the others of late. Throughout January and February, the Zahopoulos scandal made one unexpected headline after the other. It was revealed that the sex scandal, apart from the general secretary of the ministry of culture, involved a few employees in the ministry, lawyers, journalists and members of parliament. Finally the state prosecutor charged several of these people with felonies, some of them were put in prison, two layers tried to commit suicide, while a ND member of parliament was expelled from his party, where he returned a few months later.
At the same time, January 28th, the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Crhistodoulos finally succumbed to cancer, after a seven month - long fight that had worn him out and forced him to undergo surgery several times in the United States before asking to go back to his home in Athens so that he can die peacefully among his family and his friends. It was the end of an era for the Church of Greece, as Christodoulos has put his seal in many pivot moments and fought many controversies for the Church, for example the fight to keep religion in ID cards with millions of signatures collected to press for a referendum, his vendetta with Patriarch Bartholomew over the ecclesiastical status in the ‘New Lands’ and many others.
Meanwhile, from late January through February, the world’s stock markets were experiencing high volatility, as many people in the financial sector were getting more and more reasonable doubts about the future of the banking and insurance sectors. Such doubts and anticipation of a recession were fueled by the failure of several securities activities in the banking and insurance sector. Similarly, food commodities experienced severe financial speculation in the relevant exchanges, causing in large part a food crisis throughout the world and fuelling great concern for the future of millions of people in the less than advantaged countries across most continents.
Spring could be comfortably described as interesting in the international stage and no less so within the country’s borders. In March, Putin’s close ally was elected as the new President, to the cynical reaction of most of the world and many within his country, while Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia, which was promptly recognized by a number of countries, Tibet experienced unrest and faced the crackdown of the Chinese military and security forces, while in the United States, Senator Barack Obama was making some headway in his quest for the nomination of the Democratic party.
In contrast, domestic politics were experiencing an unexpected turn of events at that time. Matthew Nimitz made a new proposal to the governments of Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia for the resolution of the dispute between the two countries that’s in place since the latter declared its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. New Democracy and Konstantinos Karamanlis looked at the proposal favourably and were willing to negotiate over the details of the proposal. But the governmental partners of the Prime Minister, Karatzaferis, refused to discuss any solution that would give the neighbouring country the name ‘Macedonia’ or any derivative. That was not too big a problem for the government, though, as it was more than likely that the solution would be supported by most other parties in parliament. However, nothing ever came out of the negotiations, and it was never revealed which of the two governments, if only one was responsible, would not discuss the matter further.
The disagreement between ND and LAOS over the issue could not – and did not – stay secret and TV fights between politicians of the two parties soon became the favourite spectacle for PASOK and the rest of the opposition. Papandreou believed this was a moment he could directly challenge Karamanlis and his government and he made his move – he tabled a motion of no confidence against his old friend and roommate. After three days of furious debate in Parliament, the motion was defeated as LAOS did not vote as a single bloc, like the other parties, despite the instructions of Karatzaferis, who realised that being able to blackmailing a government any time he feels like it is much better than being dismissed as a fringe opposition party. But the moment the result was announced by the Speaker, it was obvious that the government was now hanging by a thread, as the motion was defeated by just three votes short of the required majority – 150 MPs voted in favour of the no-confidence motion, while 148 MPs voted against it, with two abstentions by LAOS MPs.
The original issue, however, was not to be sidelined until much later, as in early April, the 2008 NATO Summit was held in Bucharest, which would decide on the accession of the FYROM, along with Albania and Croatia. The Greek government, backed by the opposition and the populace, made several warnings for months before the beginning of the summit that it would not accept its neighbour’s admittance unless the naming dispute would be solved. Following the previous month’s debacle, the threat materialized and was supported by most other member-states, which agreed that the time was not yet ripe for the admission of the former Yugoslav Republic in the organisation. However, the United States officials, along with their colleagues from a number of other members of NATO could not - when they tried to - hide their lack of amusement towards the stance of the Greek government and its decision to insist on the issue despite the US government's express wish.
Karamanlis and his cabinet would cause greater dissatisfaction from Washington towards Athens a few days later, when a deal - a double deal, actually- was struck with Russia in the end of the same month. The first part of the agreement was the signing of the South Stream gas pipeline, that would include a corridor through Bulgaria and Greece to Italy, giving an alternative to Central and Western Europe for their gus supplies, plus expanding the supply to meet demands for gas in Balkan countries and warming relations with them. The second part was a 1.2 billion euros contract for 400 ΤΟΜΑ BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles, with an option for another 20, following a relevant decision by the Government Council of External Policy the previous December. It was deemed as a foreign policy success by political pundits and the general population viewed the pipeline deal positively, however the armament deal was more divisive, with many seeing the BMPs as either too expensive, too updated, too useless, or too much of everything. What seemed certain, though, was that while LAOS MPs and officials would be very happy about this deal to the point of extending the lifeline they would give to Karamanlis, the American allies would not be too happy about all this, what with NATO's plan for a missile shield in Eastern Europe which was seen with suspicion by the majority of parties and scholars in Greece and other countries, and met with outright hostility by Moscow.
It wouldn't be before another month passed that things would take a turn for the worse as far as the government was concerned. Another scandal, this time coming from Germany, would shake the political world of the country for years to come. Siemens AG, as was revealed by prosecutorial investigation in its Munich offices, had bribed, among others, Greek politicians and officials in order to win big government contracts in security systems, telecommunications and transportation. It was later found out by the Greek state prosecutor that there was 10% bribe for each contract, with 2% going to top politicians and 8% going to other officials, which would be paid by overpricing each contract by the same amount, for a total loss of at least 100 million euros for the treasure of the state. A few days later, Theodoros Tsoukatos, a former PASOK MP and close adviser to former PASOK Prime Minister Kostas Simitis, admitted to having got 1 million Deutsche Marks from Siemens back in 1999, alleging he transferred the sum to PASOK itself by agreement between the parts in this bribery scandal.
This scandal was an affair that damaged both ND and PASOK, as the briberies took place during both parties’ tenures in government and allegations touched both parties’ officials; still, fingers could not be pointed to specific individuals, as judicial investigation was still undergoing and in its early stages. But what did happen was that many non-partisan citizens who viewed Karamanlis and his government positively or apathetically were disillusioned with them from that point on, growing more cynical day by day, already having suspicions after ND let those fringe LAOS people in power.
However, it was not the Siemens case that turned the general public opinion against the government. That was to be accomplished by another scandal that broke – the so-called “Vatopedi scandal” – that broke out late August. Details were sketchy at best in the beginning and what was widely known was that the head of the Vatopedi Monastery in the Holy Mountain, Father Efraim, had engaged in multimillion shady deals with the government involving land swaps. What was peculiar about this one scandal, was that the populace – admittedly, encouraged by the media – was very quick to assign blame and develop even more cynical attitudes towards the incumbent government and, for the first time, the church itself. For many decades, the left had always critised the higher echelons of the church for trying everything in their power to concentrate and keep wealth and then hypocritically throw a few crumbs to a very limited number of people in need. A sizable number of people also had been accusing the church of corruption and greediness and, as its own leadership would later concede, these accusations ‘were not always far from the truth’. But this was quickly made into a case study about the actual validity of such accusations and, although previously people critical of the church were more often than not called out as “atheists”, “communists” or even “zionist new world order agents” by the more hardcore rightists, it now came to be seen and be confirmed that the church had indeed engaged in malicious acts, and by dealing with a right-wing government, too. In that scene, the Vatopedi Scandal was the defining which, after a long and exhausting – but not even close to exhaustive – list of scandals that had been came to light concerning both the Government and the Church over the years, any goodwill of the indifferent part of the population towards those two institutions, evaporated, a process that had started even earlier, as demonstrated in the Siemens scandal.
Meanwhile, the other side of the Atlantic was being shaken by the collapse of a large banking institution few people in Greece had ever heard, by the name of Lehman Brothers. Its bankruptcy sent shockwaves throughout the Wall Street, the USA and indeed the western world. It was too early to tell what had led to this mess, but it was certain that the government had to intervene to prevent the collapse of the whole banking system and, consequently, the economy. To an awful lot of people’s relief, a bailout was quickly set up and a large-scale bank run and, without intervention by the Fed, eventual collapse was averted at that moment. However, the economy in both North America and Europe would soon fell into recession, which helped Democratic candidate Barack Obama win the November US election by a landslide.
Back in Athens, that latest scandal would cause the Minister of State Theodoros Roussopoulos, close friend and adviser to Prime Minister Karamanlis, to resign. Two other ministers were damaged by the allegations, but refused to resign, and the PM refused to sack them. Karatzaferis blackmailed Karamanlis not to take any action against the Church or he would turn against him. All the parties of the opposition would denounce the government for corruption and incompetence for the next months, and PM Karamanlis hardly had the situation under control. A social consensus had emerged that he, in fact, could not – or would not – deliver the landmark promise he made back in 2004 about tackling corruption; however, ND was still the party of the right with a loyal following, glued together by social conservatives, neoliberals, moderate nationalists, a corrupted clientele, centre-rightists who prefer Karamanlis’ to Papandreou’s incompetence, all this fueled by partisan tribalism. Many of these people would vote for New Democracy no matter what – after all, “PASOK is much more corrupted” (which was not necessary completely false, although reality wouldn’t favour their own party at the moral level). However, it was certainly true that the apathetic part of the electorate no longer tolerated the incumbent government.
In politics, however, most of the times, for a political actor, like a party, to fall, it is necessary to show signs of fatigue and incompetence, like scandals and bad economy numbers, but it is not always sufficient. Sometimes, an event that symbolises all this bad state of affairs and gives the opportunity to your enemies to show their real teeth needs to happen to spell your political end and, a few times, signal the end of something bigger. And this is what would happen in a cold winter night in a bad-reputed neighbourhood in the centre of Athens. It was twenty minutes to midnight, Saturday 6 December of the year that was about to end. 2008.
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I only have to say that OTL provides ample material that can make the timeline stay plausible.
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Definitely. And for those of us who missed it the last time 'round, it certainly wouldn't hurt to watch it again.
katchen
Banned
Indeed. I hope TTL avoids OTTL's pitfalls and austerity. When will we be hearing from New Dawn? (By the way, who are they?)
And what about the gas that has been discovered off Castelezorrian OTTL? Who will develop it? Will Greece cooperate with Cyprus and Israel? Will Greece pull out of the EU? Or align with Russia/Eurasia/SCO?
And if there's oil off Albania, is there oil off Epiros?
I'll definitely be staying tuned.
And what about the gas that has been discovered off Castelezorrian OTTL? Who will develop it? Will Greece cooperate with Cyprus and Israel? Will Greece pull out of the EU? Or align with Russia/Eurasia/SCO?
And if there's oil off Albania, is there oil off Epiros?
I'll definitely be staying tuned.
And I hope I succeeded in that, at least partially.
You mean Golden Dawn? Well, they're a neo-nazi party that was formed by WWII nazi collaborators, supporters of the 1967-74 dictatorship*, very hard core christian fundamentalists who have problems realising what GD really is - and I think there used to be some royalists in there until the 80s, but that's no longer the case. In the 00s, GD changed a lot, but I intend to include relevant information in due time.
Unfortunately, the reasons for the economic troubles are still there and haven't been butterflied away. As for your other questions, do stay tuned.
*as in, the current leader of the party was urged to start it in a conversation with one of the dictators when he was in prison.
You listed 5 candidates for pasok, but only gave percentages for 4. What did Loverdos get?
A quick perusal of eg Wiki says that the Vatopedi scandal ended up with several people cleared, and the real estate values involved upheld. Now, i gather thats controversial, but if LAOS prevents any investigation, does that backfire and never clear them, at least to the extent they were cleared iotl?
Btw, does LAOS spell 'people' in modern greek?
A quick perusal of eg Wiki says that the Vatopedi scandal ended up with several people cleared, and the real estate values involved upheld. Now, i gather thats controversial, but if LAOS prevents any investigation, does that backfire and never clear them, at least to the extent they were cleared iotl?
Btw, does LAOS spell 'people' in modern greek?
Loverdos finally decided not enter the race, as I said in the asterisk in that post.
As for the Vatopedi scandal (IOTL), it's a very complicated scandal. It has been established and accepted that the shady deals did happen and that there was wrongdoing. The english wikipedia has only a small part of the story, and the sources that are used are dubious at best. For example, the monastery claimed the real estate in Vistonida by using imperial golden bulls of the Byzantine Emperor written in 1080 and affirmed by the Ottoman sultan and the nazi collaborative "government" in WWII, making the claims practically invalid. On the contrary, the 1930 agreement between the Greek state and the monastery, the 1928 ruling of the Council of State and the legal opinions of the Legal Council of the State all do not recognize the claims of the monastery to the lake. Indeed, according to the Greek constitution, big lakes cannot be private possessions, the same being affirmed by the civil code. And that's only one of the issues with that deal.
Moreover, it's a partisan parliamentary committee that has the power of inquiry and hearings for actions of former cabinet members, and the courts cannot act beyond the express scope of the committee in these cases. And because the committee (actually, three committees - one established in 2008, a second in 2010 and a third in 2011) is partisan, every party published a different opinion on the facts, so we can't be sure about what exactly happened. The report of the 2010 committee alone is 460 pages long so I can only read that much.
ITTL, the investigation has not yet begun and LAOS will certainly be opposed to anything that goes against the church, not to mention Athos itself.
Yes, LAOS was ment to be spelled and pronounced like the people, but everyone who doesn't vote for them stress the other syllable and change the gender to underline that this party and the people are two notions that hardly overlap.
Chapter 7: A Bullet Not Dodged
11.27 ΑΜ, December 6th 2008, Exarcheia area, Athens.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, good morning.
As you all know, this conference of the Athens branches of the Association of Greek Psychologists and the Association of Greek Psychiatrists organized today here in Exarcheia is devoted to a new and challenging for our society phenomenon, which is the sociopolitical pressure exerted to young people in our country during the last years. As many of you know, we conducted interviews with a large number of people aged in the range of 15 - 28 during the last few months, with view to exploring the current state of the youth’s psychology, particularly in the social context they find themselves into. Dr. Korianidis will present the first and more general data extracted from our research.”
“Thank you, Mister Chairman. To give you more detailed information, twenty seven psychologists and psychiatrists conducted personal and group interviews with about one hundred and eighty people above the age of 15 and under the age of 28, coming from various social and economic backgrounds, educational levels and occupations. After the collection of the data from thirty minutes long interviews in which the participants answered a number of standard and uniform questions, we were able to draw conclusions on the subject. It has been found that, always speaking in general terms – although it should be pointed out that the sentiment was decisive or even overwhelming in that direction – there is a climate of permanent disappointment, clear signs of psychological exhaustion and strong feelings of pressure and injustice, which seem to increase over time, in the youth of our society. When asked about the facts which led them to their current psychological state of affairs, it is more than safe to say that the nature of the problem seems to be two-fold. On the one hand, practically almost every participant brought up the difficulty of employment despite a promising academic background, in addition to the reality of uninsured – the so called ‘black’ – low-paid, part-time employment that seems to be the inevitable reality for the vast majority of young people in the country, as the participants themselves pointed out. On the other hand, a large number of participants expressed, or implied, their dismay at the assumption – or realization, depending if you agree with the thesis – that they have been brought up to be ambitious and optimistic about their futures, but they have been ‘robbed’, if I may take the liberty of using that word, of their futures by the previous generations which, through corruption and false promises, created a false promise that is not going be fulfilled in the future. Thank you, Mister Chairman.”
“And now, Miss Diamantidou, you have the floor.”
“Thank you. I was on the team that drew the conclusions of the study and we came to a very difficult, a very challenging realisation. Colleagues, for quite some time the question was if and when there will be a social crisis triggered by the issues laid down by Doctor Korianidis. This has changed now. The question we are now asked both as individuals and as professionals, and the whole of our society is asked, is what we can do and what we will do in the face of the coming storm. Sooner or later, it is more than likely that the great discontent experienced by the young, along with other disadvantaged – or self-perceived as disadvantaged – sectors of our society will find a tipping point when it will be externalised in a burst which, needless to say, will not be quiet or peaceful, so to speak.”
“We thank Miss Diamantidou for this most interesting information. There will now be a half hour break for lunch and then we will proceed with the presentation of the specific data and findings of the survey. Oh, and I forgot, there will be a speech at noon by the chairman of the society of Greek social workers on the issue of disabled students…”
11.09 PΜ, December 6th 2008, Exarcheia area, Athens.
The music could clearly be heard in the hallway, even after the door of the apartment closed behind. Helena was a little dizzy from the alcohol and could not walk straight in the stairs. Thank god for Alexandros and Nikos, both of them holding each of her arms to the door of the building. As they opened the door, a cold freeze and some rain drops forced their way in. Nikos took the girl’s umbrella, opened it and put it above all three of them as they were getting out in the crossroads of Mesologgiou and Tzavela streets. The rain that was pouring down was heavy and the wind was strong, which is unusual for this city even for winter. After they sat down in a bench nearby, Alexandros took out his mobile from his pocket.
“Mum, we just got out… Yes, great. Yes, mu… okay, enough with the questions. You’re coming right now? Great, we’re right outside the door... Are you sure? It’ll be half an hour to Psychiko. Ok, great, bye.”
The rain got heavier and heavier, louder and louder as each moment was passing by.
11.14 PM, Victoria Square, Athens.
-I’m fucking bored today, nothing’s happened in the last hours.
-You want me to sing you a song or something?
-Aren’t you funny. I’m just saying that even the most exciting things about this job aren’t happening often enough.
-You like your anarchist-beating don’t you?
-Helps flex the muscle. These idiots throw some molotov and jokingly harmless firecrackers then run away, are you telling me I shouldn’t make their little puny faces get the colour of their silly flags?
-No, you should, it’s just that I-
-“Vehicle 352, are you reading this?”
-GADA* Headquarters, this is vehicle 352.
-“Vehicle 352, there is a road traffic violation in Alexandras Avenue, we’re told it’s an illegally parked car I gather… go there and deal with it.”
-Roger, we’re going, Vehicle 352.
11.22 PM, Mesologgiou Street 7, Exarcheia, Athens.
The group of the three friends could be heard talking loudly and laughing from some distance, although no one could understand what they were saying as their words would be covered by the sound of the rain crashing in the ground. One would think they certainly wouldn’t want to stay there too long, being outside in the rain can be fun for many people, but too long exposure to it and to cold winds of the winter is not often a pleasant experience. For old people. These young ones could stay there for hours, talking lightly, laughing hard, doing whatever, enjoying each other’s company, without caring what’s happening around them.
Suddenly, sirens were heard from a long distance. The next moment, the rain suddenly stopped. And the next, the sound of a hand grenade exploding came from afar, then another. The three youth then saw two figures walking towards another group of people who were coming close to the bench, maybe five or six of them. Shouts.
Alexandros couldn’t get exactly what was going on and he didn’t seem to have the ability to react swiftly to anything. The effects of the alcohol still hadn’t gone away completely. The two figures seemed to be policemen. As the distance was growing smaller and smaller between the three groups of people, everyone was growing more and more intense. Then, the five other people – all dressed in black and with their hoods on, run away from the street corner and to the alleys nearby, keeping shouting and cursing to the policemen, as was true for them as well. Alexandros’ mouth then opened, almost as if by itself. “Why are you swearing, eh?” he shouted to the one of the two, who were now about ten metres away.
“Now I’ll show you!” The cop shouted back furious. Alexandros now knew he shouldn’t have opened his mouth, but he didn’t even know why he did or how to react to what has happening.
The three people stood there for less than half of a moment, all of them pulled their eyes to the cop that had just yelled. He was putting out a gun. He can’t do it. He just can’t. He won’t.
And yet, he did.
He raised the hand.
One gunshot was heard.
Another.
Suddenly, Nikos heard the bullet hitting next to him. He looked to the left of him, only to see Alexandros falling slowly in the ground. In fact, it felt as if the moment of the fall lasted years, or more. And then, “Guys, the shot me…” Alexandros said slowly, as his last breadth expired.
Helena just couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Her friend had just fallen down to a bullet and, by a bullet of a cop ten metres away. His face was still fill of a look of surprise, formed by the eyes, the mouth, the forehead. Helena was sure she could see the same look on her. How couldn’t she? Alexandros had just taken a bullet. For nothing. But, he may be lucky. He may live. But they had to get him to a hospital as soon as possible. She looked towards the direction the cops were three seconds ago, but they weren’t there. They were already walking back hurriedly. They are going to get away with it. As soon as they were out of sight, Nikos and Helena looked one another, both having kneeled next to each side of Alexander’s… body (No, don’t use that word. He can’t be dead). Then said to each other, simultaneously one word: “Ambulance”.
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*GADA (ΓΑΔΑ) : General Police Directorate of Athens