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Anastasia Balezdrova

We spoke with Professor Athanasios Diamandopoulos last November first, shortly after the local elections in Greece. Then, he somewhat predicted the end of the bi-party system in Greece. After the unsuccessful attempt of the Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou to share the responsibility with New Democracy pressed by Europe to reach consensus he almost shared his power with his main internal party rival Evangelos Venizelos. We consulted the political scientist, after the three days tense in political terms when Greece passed from the real possibility of mutual government of both major parties through a de facto resignation of the Prime Minister to a government reshuffle with the strong participation of the old party cadres.

Mr. Diamandopoulos, how do you evaluate the new composition of the government?

There is no significant opening to the political system, or to society. The Prime Minister used a strong personality that shows mainly the existence of alliance between the two peaks of PASOK than a broad social or political support to the government. This does not inspire great optimism.

Which political logic did George Papandreou follow in making the specific changes?

I think that was his intention to keep his "back" within PASOK and to unite the whole party and especially the opposite pole in order to share the responsibility for governing the country.

What do you think is the reason for the removal of the ministers who were chosen personally by the Prime Minister like the Minister of Foreign Affairs Dimitris Droutsas and the Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Change Tina Birbili?

George Papandreou realized that it is impossible to rule with a personal team under these conditions and that he needs broad political support from the party as the bearer of institutional and organized political force.

Furthermore, George Papandreou has a part of PASOK against him, which was created mostly by his father. This is the trade union and populist PASOK. The heads of the unions that actually made the Greek society a hostage and exploit it and squeeze it tens of years are within PASOK. In an attempt to limit their role and to correct the functioning of the Greek political system, George Papandreou has to turn against them. So, there was no a single political figure who shared the main lines of his policy, but that would like to play a role in their implementation and in determining the political moves.

Evangelos Venizelos is a very strong pole in PASOK and a personality with great influence. For these reasons, George Papandreou could not leave him "out of the game." Although Venizelos is not an economist and has no specific knowledge, the Prime Minister was at least obliged to include him in the central responsibility for dealing with the most basic problem faced by Greek society today. George Papandreou would be a quite powerless politician if he had continued with his personal team, which was the minority in PASOK. This government is an alliance between the two major poles in the party, possibly directed against the trade unionists in it.

Do you think this alliance will be able to cope with them?

It is not only syndicalism, but the fact that the keeping of the sick and irrational privileges has an ally in a large part of Greek society. It does not understand that the people who present themselves as allies actually are its exploiters. It does not understand that any position which is kept irrationally in the public sector leads to loosing positions in the private sector through the imposition of taxes and weakening the business in the country.

There are many estimates already that the reformed government will not survive long. What is your opinion on this matter?

The French philosopher Paul Valery said, that when you predict, you mislead yourself. Politics is an order of events. There could be many turning points even within a week. Let me recall that we expected a government with the participation of both parties about 36 hours ago and now we have a new composition of the cabinet. It is not easy to predict the events, but the logical analysis shows that the political course of this government is not very long. I think that it would hardly remain until the autumn or until the end of the year under normal conditions. But we can never be sure. Politics is full of surprises.

How do you evaluate the position of New Democracy in an attempt to create a joint government with PASOK?

I feel that if New Democracy was headed by Costas Karamanlis – in practice a failed and irresponsible prime minister who still ruled almost six years – there could be eventually a sense of national responsibility and the situation would be different. Currently, Antonis Samaras is thirsty for power, willing to play a lot. I think his behaviour was a manifestation of irresponsibility to which he turned sing the populist mentality that has dominated in Greek society for years.