Like it or not, bipartisanship entrenched itself in Greece in the past forty years. Never before had our country experienced a democratic regime for such a long time, since the revolution of 1821.
After the collapse of the colonels’ dictatorship, Konstantinos Karamanlis set the foundations of the democratic rule that the Greek people have enjoyed for the past four decades. Andreas Papandreou (along with his revolutionary turtleneck, as his friends used to say) lived up to expectations – Greece finally entered an era of political calmness, thanks to the Karamanlis/Papandreou interplay. The two leaders implemented a parliamentary system that was based on the rotation of the two dominant parties in power. The other political factions remained in the side lines for forty years, without having any real say in the governing of the country.
From 1974 up until a few years ago, the smaller parties’ strategy was focused on alliances. KKE especially, but other smaller leftist parties as well, would persistently seek out alliances that the conservative Right dismissed as populist fronts. The Centrist leaders, with Giorgos Papandreou at the helm, rejected all possibilities of collaborating with the Left. Things were similar in the conservative camp. The latest developments however – such as the failures of Konstantinos Karamanlis’ successors and the incomprehensible “politics” of Papandreou’s son which dragged the country through the mud before he handed over empty coffers – in conjunction with the ailments of parliamentarism that lurk within and beyond Parliament, lead to the fragmentation of political life in Greece.
The constant flow of followed from one small party to the other – bigger or smaller – do not contribute towards stable governments, but rather they hint towards the plight that is to come.
Those who are essentially blocking the participation of the Center Left in political life and the people’s ability to chose more conservative or progressive politics appear to be opening a backdoor to the Right, which has shown hints of recovery in the polls lately.
The Greek people’s vote will provide the solution.
Andreas P. Psycharis
– Originally published in the Sunday print edition
