Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Karamanlís swiftly negotiated a ceasefire in Cyprus, and in November 1974 he and
his
Néa Dhimokratía
(New Democracy) party were rewarded by a sizeable majority in
elections. The chief opposition was the new Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK),
led by
Andreas Papandréou
, son of George.
Europe and a new Greece: 1974-2000
To Karamanlís's enduring credit, his New Democracy party oversaw an effective return
to
democratic stability
, even legalizing the KKE (the Greek Communist Party) for the
first time. Karamanlís also held a
referendum on the monarchy
, in which seventy
percent of Greeks rejected the return of Constantine II. So a largely symbolic
presidency was instituted instead, occupied by Karamanlís from 1980 to 1985, and
again from 1990 to 1995. In 1981, Greece joined the
European Community
.
In the same year the socialist party,
PASOK
, and its leader
Andréas Papandréou
swept
to power. The new era started with a bang as long-overdue
social reforms
were enacted;
peasant women were granted pensions; wages were indexed to the cost of living; civil
marriage was introduced; family and property law was reformed in favour of wives and
mothers; and equal rights legislation was passed. By the time PASOK was returned to
power in 1985, it was apparent the promised economic bonanza was not happening:
hit by low productivity, lack of investment (not helped by anti-capitalist rhetoric from
the government) and world recession, unemployment rose, inflation hit 25 percent and
the national debt soared.
In the event it was the European Community, once Papandréou's
bête noire
, which
rescued him, with a huge loan on condition that an austerity programme was
maintained. Forced to drop many of his populist policies, the increasingly autocratic
Papandréou turned on his former left-wing allies. Combined with the collapse of Soviet
rule in Eastern Europe, his own very public affair with an Olympic Airways hostess half
his age, and a raft of economic scandals, PASOK's hold on power was not surprisingly
weakened. Since 1989, when New Democracy was elected once more, the two parties
have exchanged power on a regular basis.
The 1990s were not easy, with an economy riven by unrest and division, and huge
foreign policy headaches caused by the break-up of the former Yugoslavia and the ensuing
wars on Greece's borders. Alone among NATO members, Greece was conspicuous for its
open support of
Serbia
, ostentatiously supplying trucks to Belgrade via Bulgaria.
By the end of the 1990s, the economy was apparently stabilizing, with inflation
consistently in single figures, and in 1997 national morale was further boosted with the
award of the 2004 Olympic Games to Athens. Abroad, a dramatic and unexpected change
in Greece's always distrustful
relations with Turkey
came when a severe
earthquake
struck
northern Athens on September 7, 1999, killing scores and rendering almost 100,000
homeless. Coming less than a month after a devastating earthquake in northwest Turkey, it
spurred a thaw between the two historical rivals. Greeks donated massive amounts of
blood and foodstuffs to the Turkish victims, and were the earliest foreign rescue teams to
reach Turkey; in turn they saw Turkish disaster-relief squads among the first on the scene
in Athens. Soon afterwards, foreign minister George Papandréou (son of Andreas, later
Prime Minister) announced that Greece had dropped its opposition to EU financial aid to
Turkey and that Greece would no longer oppose Turkish candidacy for the EU.
1991
1999
2001
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia declares
independence; Greece objects to use of the
name Macedonia.
Athens earthquake;
rapprochement between
Greece and Turkey.
Greece adopts the euro, consigning
Europe's oldest currency, the
drachma, to history after some
3000 years.
