(I want to dedicate this text to those of my former students who in the end, chose “mediocrity” and “virtual reality” for the sake of their own society, their own families and their own survival).
The 70s, with an effective presidential parliamentary system and with all elected political parties participating freely and independently in all legislative procedures in the Greek Parliament, produced a certain normality in Greek Society which soon yielded fruits. There was economic development, greater means and protection for a freer political and cultural expression by all Greek Citizens, a more institutionalized organization of the workers in all professions, and lastly but most critically, once again there was a social rise of all the democratic and leftist political forces in the country. This last socio-political development had taken place due to a more universal educational system at all levels and also due to a more coherent and pragmatic political consciousness developing through more independent political parties, a freer press and the large increase in the numbers of editing houses which provided the Greek population with a wider range of books of all types of learning and ideologies. These democratic and leftist socio-political forces of Greek Society, “once again”, but with more intensity and pragmatism, demanded “now and then”, a more modern and pluralistic state which would promote and protect the interests and the everyday needs of all the people, based on the criteria of a modern nation-state, similar to those being applied effectively and creatively in the developed states of the West.
This historical development of all of Greek Society, especially after the government’s political rapprochement to the European Community, resulting in Greece becoming a full member-state in 1981, introduced serious handicaps to the expansionist strategies of the international financial centres concerning that country, which were always a fragile state or state infrastructure, a fragile society politically and economically, and the isolation of the country geopolitically but also culturally. Within this natural historical process, there had to be a political formula and a political personality which could respond to the expansionist objectives of these financial foreign interests in Greece. Yet this time, their political strategies and procedures had to take into account the higher level of education and socio-political consciousness of the average Greek Citizen, but also that their “conspiratorial” and “technical” distortion of the progressive process of history and culture would have to be transmitted in an “unconscious” and “permanent” way to the great majority of Greek Society. It would have to be a society which accepts that which is fanciful but not real; a “virtual image” of people, events and acts, since human judgement, human initiative and human social consciousness would have been greatly weakened. This role of the more modern and sophisticated middleman was chosen to be played by Andreas Papandreou, with political tool the political party he had founded in 1974, the Pan-Hellenic Socialist Party or PASOK.
Foreign economic organizations which had invested a lot of time and precious material(political conspiracies, political and military alliances, expert manpower, military hardware, financial support) for many years, so that they could control the Greek State and its citizens, had to choose a political figure which could function not only as a “trusted middleman” but also as a political “hocus pocus” person. He would have to be an experienced and educated political figure who would have perfect understanding of the “psychology” of the average Greek person and who would also have easy access to a certain section of Greece’s Political Establishment and Greece’s Popular Base. More importantly, he would have to project the “image” of a dynamic and conscientious “antiestablishment” and “socialist” activist who is able to defend the political independence, the economic self-sufficiency and the social development of all Greek Citizens, especially those belonging to the underprivileged classes. As to the manner by which Andreas Papandreou utilized all of these human and political ingredients, time itself and historical events would soon reveal perfectly clearly, even after the completion of his “assigned political task”, many years after his own death. Its epilogue being the “nightmarish” state of affairs which the Greek Peoples and the Greek Nation are experiencing at the present time!!!
The quality of the “hocus pocus man” defined the political evolution of Andreas Papandreou as well as his own personality. He used this “personality syndrome” with great mastery(charismatic, eloquent, direct) in order to influence Greek Public Opinion as well as all aspects of everyday Greek life, once he was elected Prime Minister of Greece in 1981 and his political party(PASOK) would hold the majority of seats in the Greek Parliament.
The quality of the “hocus pocus man” we first discover it during the student years of Andreas Papandreou, when with 3 of his schoolmates at the private College of Athens, he edits a Marxist magazine with the title “Ksekinima” or a New Start, while during his university days at the end of the 1930s, he became a member of a Trotskyite political organization.
He was not able to complete his studies at the University of Economics of Athens, the reason being that the then Fascist Greek Government arrested and imprisoned him on charges that he was a dangerous “leftist activist” and a threat to the Greek State. Nevertheless, with the aid of his father, George Papandreou, who was an old and well established politician, he was given permission to move to the United States. In 1943, Andreas Papandreou received his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University while he also volunteered to serve in the American Navy during WWII, allowing him to receive the American Citizenship.
Now, the big question for me personally, as someone who has lived in North America for many years, is how a person who is an avowed Marxist can receive such preferential treatment from the American Authorities and America’s Academic Establishment?? This exact question becomes even more relevant when we observe that Andreas Papandreou
during the 1940s and the 1950s, was offered the teaching positions of professor at powerful and influential universities such as Harvard University, the University of Minnesota and the University of California. At that period in American History and in American Politics, there was intense government and public persecution against all American citizens who prescribed or were friendly to leftist political ideas, especially in the arts and in the academic world. How was Andreas Papandreou able to be accepted by the American Government and by America’s Academic Establishment when these powerful socio-political institutions considered Communism as the Great Threat and the Great Enemy of America??
Another “ideological stumbling block” related to the “true path” taken by Andreas Papandreou as a Socialist, and also taking into account that his father, George Papandreou, was the leader of the Centre Union Party and the political opposition to a conservative Greek government(the Centre Union Party supported a policy which reflected the aspirations of the popular masses and defended the country’s national integrity), we witness Andreas Papandreou returning to Greece in 1961, by personal invitation from the then conservative Prime Minister of Greece, Konstantinos G. Karamanlis. who assigned to him key state positions which dealt with the future economic planning of the country. Andreas Papandreou became Chairman of the Board of Directors and General Director of the newly founded Athens Economic Research Centre, a state organization which for the first time could define coherently the directives for the future economic policies of the government, while he was also assigned the position of Economic Advisor to the Central Bank of Greece. And here once again, I put forward the question, how is it possible that a “conservative” and “right wing” Prime Minister consents to providing so many state privileges and powers to someone who is a confessed Socialist and whose father headed a political party(Centre Union Party) which was the opposition party in the Greek Parliament and which embodied important ideological differences relative to the conservative governing party of Konstantinos G. Karamanlis????
The answer is very simple, since it refers to the political “hocus pocus man”, Andreas Papandreou. In the United States, when Andreas Papandreou was professor and a theoretician in international economics, he always supported the mainstream views of American Economic Theories of that time, which briefly meant economic development based on the needs of the International American Capitalist System; an increase in the average income through higher production but with final goal the increase in the mass consumption of goods and services. On the same level of thinking, Andreas Papandreou in 1944, who was then 25 years old and associate professor in economics at Harvard University, became one of the 5 member team representing Greece at the International Bretton Woods Conference which would define the structures and the international balances of the International Capitalist System until the oil crises in the 1970s.
Even more critical concerning the political and ideological “meandering” of Andreas Papandreou was the fact that he was elected member of parliament for the first time in 1964 with his father’s political party, the Centre Union Party. At that time, the Centre Union Party had become Greece’s governing party and Andreas Papandreou was appointed by his father as Minister to the First Ministry or effectively assistant Prime Minister, soon also acquiring the position of Minister of Economic and Political Coordination. Andreas Papandreou was essentially “the right hand man” to his father, the Prime Minister of Greece, and “second in command” in the country’s political hierarchy. Yet, even within the political party which had permitted him to become a member in the Greek Parliament and very soon a powerful political player in Greece’s political affairs, Andreas Papandreou in 1965 clashed with his father “head on” and tried to remove him as Prime Minister in a failed political coup, using a section of Greece’s Military Establishment and some members of parliament. I personally believe that this drastic political initiative by Andreas Papandreou was directly related to the “national stance” adopted by his father, the Greek Prime Minister, who was openly demonstrating his discomfort and unease concerning the increase in the number of political interventions by the United States into Greece’s internal affairs, as well as his steafast position in defending politically and militarily the independence and the territorial integrity of Cyprus, with Archbishop Makarios as its elected President.
As we can therefore clearly see, the “pseudo” Socialist and the “pseudo” Patriot, was constantly implementing the political guidelines and the political objectives of the Americans, and naturally those of the international financial organizations with respect to Greece. To make myself even more convincing, I would like to mention a real historical fact concerning the political rise of Andreas Papandreou in Greece. When Andreas Papandreou became a full member of the Centre Union Party of his father in 1961, many of the old party cadres, especially the ones belonging to its Liberal wing, accused him of being a kind of “parachutist”(aleksiptotistis) in Greek politics, since they could not understand or fathom how someone who had arrived from nowhere, was able in a very short time, evolve into one of the most well known and popular Greek political figures, behaving with enormous self-confidence and even despotism. I believe that all these political and historical events were not at all accidental or circumstantial- they had been programmed in detail beforehand, so that one day Andreas Papandreou could become Prime Minister of Greece and the absolute “feudal lord”(Greece’s outdated political culture) of all the Greek domains. Nevertheless, a “feudal lord” who would constantly have to present and confirm his credentials to the leaders of a world empire(international money and securities organizations), and also “follow to the letter” their orders!!!!
As I have already mentioned, the political strategies and as a consequence the economic strategies of the “world money and securities organizations” relative to Greece contained since the country’s inception in 1830, three specific objectives or expectations. The first was a fragile(corruptible) state or state infrastructure, the second was a fragile(corruptible) society politically and economically, and the third objective was the geopolitical and cultural isolation of Greece, especially in relation to the Developed Western States. These strategies or objectives now had to be applied by Andreas Papandreou in Greece, always taking into account the specific political, economic, social and cultural circumstances which were in place at the time. As Prime Minister of Greece after 1981, and with a political party(PASOK) holding the absolute majority of seats in the Greek Parliament, Andreas Papandreou as a very talented “hocus pocus” politician, succeeded with his “leftist” and “ethnocentric” political rhetoric to bring to his camp many of the politically active democratic and leftist Greek voters, thus undermining the electoral base of the “progressive” centre-leftist and leftist political parties which could have put many ideological restrains as political opposition(within and outside Parliament) to his “foreign inspired national policies”. The political slogans or mottos of PASOK since its inception in 1974, such as “National Independence, Popular Rule, Social Liberation”, as well as those coming from Andreas himself, such as the statement he made in 1974 within the Greek Parliament, contradicting the then conservative Prime Minister, Konstantinos G. Karamanlis, by saying that “Greece did not belong to the West but to the Greek peoples”, attracted to his political movement and to himself a wide range of political and social forces; forces which in the past did not have common political beliefs or strategies concerning the future of the country. Most of these political slogans or maxims coming officially from PASOK and unofficially from Andreas himself, were without any “real substance” or any “real content” within the context of realizable or pragmatic guidelines for social development; they were just “wishy washy” thoughts and impressionable commentaries, very much in touch with the psychology of the average Greek person who doesn’t really like to ponder over serious matters. As we all know, the average Greek adores “overstuffed utterances” and these are the codes which shape and determine his everyday style of communication and social behaviour; surely it’s not the factor of “great deeds”. Everyday communication slogans such as “I feel great”, “It’s perfect”, “you are the best”, “I adore you”, “I gave all of me”, “I didn’t deserve it”, and many, many other “trifle” brief daily statements, and as one very popular traditional song says, “all these false utter words you told me since the first time you breastfed me”!!! Therefore, the political slogans for “change”(alaggi), the theoretical social change that Andreas Papandreou and his “leftist” political party presented as the “centre piece” of their national policy, as well as the three ideological poles of “National Independence, Popular Rule, Social Liberation” decreed in the party’s manifesto in 1974, in time and through the directives of foreign political and economic centres evolved into the simple and simplistic popular Greek saying which prescribes the following: “All you can eat, all you can drink and all that your ass can take”!!! An old Greek saying which soon most Greeks “took to their heart” and “to their lives”, and it’s exactly the reason why today they are paying such a “very high price”!!!
As we have already confirmed, Andreas Papandreou with his political party, PASOK, was aiming at controlling and then guiding the souls and thoughts of the Greek peoples, and he fully succeeded at that through a variety of strategies which would finally provide him with an absolute dominance over all sectors of the social, political, economic and cultural life of the country; many times utilizing non-democratic and autarchic means. The “key formula” for this absolute dominance by Andreas Papandreou, his political party and its higher cadres(ministers, parliamentarians, general secretaries, administrators and presidents of state banks, deans and professors of state universities, officers in the Armed Forces, etc.), was to transform the Greek State into an enormous “cliental enterprise” and its citizens into “loyal clients”, whether they were entrepreneurs, judges, bankers , military officers, academics, artists, or union leaders, or heads of public administration and state enterprises, and especially the personnel who were in charge of the state run mass media. A “cliental relationship” means that every Greek Citizen who abides “faithfully” and “blindly” to the general guidelines set forth by the absolute power of the state and the political party which embodies it, could realize his or her personal expectations or dreams, whether they are “real” or “iconic”. A “personal dream” can be a position in the civil service or in a state enterprise with exorbitant salaries and work privileges, or it could be “the easy way to riches” for a “pseudo entrepreneur” who is assigned state projects while at the same time manages “private” mass media enterprises which are indirectly financed by state funds(state advertisement) or are directly supported by special state facilities and freedoms.
We know that during the 1970s, Andreas Papandreou with his “political slogans” and with the dynamic mobilization of the Greek masses by his political party through their local political organizations throughout Greece, was able to gradually disseminate the forces of the other political parties, “focusing” his efforts especially on those parties which belonged ideologically to the centre-left and to the left in the political spectrum. Andreas Papandreou not only undermined the electoral base of these “progressive” political parties, he also brought into his own political camp many of their cadres who held critical administrative posts and union positions in the state infrastructure, in the work place, in education and in the mass means of communication and entertainment. There is little or no doubt that Andreas Papandreou was in “perfect touch” with the psychology of the “average” Greek person, therefore he knew perfectly well that this “average” Greek person had lived for many, many years under many economic restraints and shortfalls, while he also knew that the real expectations or dreams of an “average” Greek person generally entailed themselves personally(egotism), which could be translated as the opportunities and the means to personally acquire greater buying power and material goods, considering it as secondary the quality of life of the whole of Greek Society which comprised other elements and dimensions within everyday life existence .
It’s on this type of propensity for “individualism” and “materialism” of the average Greek person that Andreas Papandreou invested fully, simply by providing everyone with “plenty of money”, something almost unknown in the past and never really imagined. So with time and calculated steps, a greedy, unsociable, antagonistic, immoral, exhibitionistic and an “all consumer” human specie was created who would sacrifice “everything and anyone” in order to acquire as much wealth and property, and so be glorified by his peers and his close acquaintances as the prototype of a truly successful individual and a really “smooth player”(mangas)!!! From now on, every “active social person” would have his or her own value tag in “cash money”, and not in a meritorious or honour value. It would be “the pocket money” for the doctor for better medical care, the “pay offs” to politicians for state deals, the “bribes” to civil servants for quick services, the “buying” of judges for lenient court decisions, the “money donations” to priests for a place in Heaven, the “money exchange” to tax inspectors for tax evasion, and thousands of other such everyday “illegal” money transactions that we all “law abiding” Greek Citizens today consider them as “normal” and “natural”, and sometimes we are even envious of the successful and shrewd techniques of others. Our “modern” social stance as Greek Citizens to want “to be Glorified” because we are more cunning than the rest, we owe it to a large degree to the “national policies” and the “life philosophy” of Andreas Papandreou and his political party; a historical fact which is now “haunting” the souls and minds of most Greek Citizens today!!!
Andreas Papandreou served as Prime Minister of Greece from October 1981 to July 1989, and from October 1993 to January 1996. He died in June 1996, at the age of 77.
It is a historical fact that from 1981 until 1985, when Andreas Papandreou was re-elected for a second term as Prime Minister of Greece(receiving 46% of the popular vote while his party retained the majority of seats in the Greek Parliament), there was economic prosperity in all of Greek Society, especially for the middle and lower classes. With a strong and very soon, an all powerful PASOK government, the ideal “iconic” economic preconditions as well as the ideal “artificial” social environment were set up in order to produce a dramatic rise in the buying power of the “average” Greek person; the approximate level being around 26% for the public sector which was naturally passed on to the private sector due to a “well manipulated” supply and demand of manpower, resulting from an economy largely controlled by the state(cliental state). The economic formula was to a large degree quite simple- the rapid growth and expansion of the country’s public sector by hiring thousands of people for a multitude of positions in the public services as well as in the private enterprises which had been systematically nationalized. The state took control of “strategic” private enterprises owned by powerful Greek trusts and Greek families(financial establishment), like the bauxite mines of LARCO(basic mineral for the production of nickel), the powerful enterprise PIRKAL which produced military weaponry, the cement mines and factories of AGET-IRAKLIS, the Hellenic Steel Mills, the shipyards of Skaramanga, the textile mills of Piraiki-Patraiki, the petroleum company of Esso-Pappas, and many other dynamic private enterprises which represented
a large proportion of the country’s manufacturing sector. As with all civil employees, the thousands of individuals who were hired to work for those “nationalized enterprises”, acquired instantly the same “legal status”, which meant a high income and “employment permanency”. It is therefore not unusual to witness from that period on (until the present day), a public sector, especially the non-productive divisions, experiencing a constant expansion, while the private sector having a continuous decline, especially in industry. Very soon, the Greek products of the “nationalized enterprises” became non-competitive in the world markets due to the high labour cost, putting a high financial burden on the finances of the state since it had to subsidize their deficits, while Andreas Papandreou “was forced” to devalue the drachma(national currency) in 1983 and again in 1985. These devaluations of Greece’s national currency were aimed at helping the country’s exports in becoming more price competitive, thus “in theory” improving the country’s “trade balance”(the value of exports compared to the value of imports). In the long run, these “artificial” financial measures by the PASOK government did not have a “positive impact” on the economy of Greece, because the “hocus pocus man”, Andreas Papandreou, not only had increased the buying power of the “average” Greek person, he had also promoted the human appetite for large scale personal consumption(the ideal lifestyle as advertised by the Greek mass media), especially in expensive imported goods. With a devalued drachma, the value of imported products greatly increased, producing through time an ever increasing “trade deficit”(which still continues), and naturally a financial debt towards all foreign suppliers which had to be paid in hard currency, through internal and external financial loans, coming mostly from “international banks” and “international money and securities organizations”!!!
During the 1980s, the financing of an “over expanded” public sector came to a large degree from Greek banks(internal debt) which Andreas Papandreou had nationalized or had put under state control, while their administrators and directors were directly appointed by Andreas Papandreou personally; an “unorthodox” government arrangement which made it easier for the continuation of “internal financing” by Greek State Banks. After 1990, Greek governments turned to foreign banks for this type of financing, therefore increasing Greece’s foreign debt, while they also privatized many of these Greek State Banks. So, until 1989, Andreas Papandreou and his political party directly supervised the country’s banking system, and he used this “questionable” institutional status not only to define and determine the type of financing of the public sector, but to also to assist financially all those “pseudo” Greek entrepreneurs who supported his non-productive and non-developmental economic policies. This new generation of Greek “entrepreneurs”, meaning the majority of Greek businessmen who invested in “making a quick buck”, were state financiers and those involved in state construction projects, loan-shark bankers and middlemen “carpetbaggers” responsible for the distribution of state funds. One of the many “illicit” ways that Andreas Papandreou and his “political lackeys” bolstered up the various State Banks which were under their control was to make at tactical times large transfers of funds from the money reserves of the various State Insurance Organizations and State Enterprises to these banks; investing this money at a lower rate of interest from what these organizations would obtain in the International Investment and Securities Markets. For example, the money reserves of the State Insurance Organizations which were being transferred to Greece’s State Banks, revitalized these banks not only by increasing their capital reserves but also through a “technically manipulated” low interest rate which was fixed essentially by the government, these Banks made large profits from the difference in the interest rate they were lending this money to their customers.
The politicians, the government officials, the administrators of State Insurance Organizations, and many high civil servants who “consciously” and “deliberately” participated in this “illegal” and “financially fraudulent” banking ploy, a “financial conspiracy” instigated by Andreas Papandreou and his government, were in fact directly and systematically “withdrawing” or “stealing” large chunks of money which had been paid by Greek workers and employees as insurance tax on their revenues, so that they could receive full medical care and when they retire, an income which could cover their everyday basic needs. At this point, we have to emphasize the fact that all of these politicians, civil servants, bankers, etc., who participated in all of these “unlawful banking activities”, did not do it instinctually or because of their political loyalty to Andreas Papandreou and his “socialist” party; they acted on it because through these “illegal financial initiatives” each one of them was making a lot of money. A large percentage of this “dirty money” came from the value difference between the “government assigned” interest rates which these state funds were receiving when they were being invested in State Banks and the competitive interest rates which these same State Banks were charging on loans to their own customers.
The financial-political scandal with the Bank of Crete, the “scandal” which in 1991 had Andreas Papandreou tried by a Special Court appointed by the Greek Parliament, represents just a small “photo simile” of the numerous “illegal bank transactions” implicating politicians, managers of state banks, administrators of state enterprises, secretaries of various government ministries and many other “official” and “unofficial” Greek swindlers. The basic accusation in this trial was that in 1988, the then Prime Minister of Greece, Andreas Papandreou, had with his close political functionaries, the top administrators of state enterprises and state banks presidents, made large money transfers from the reserves of state owned enterprises to the Bank of Crete, a state owned bank. They had fixed the interest rates of those state funds at extremely low levels, thus producing a 200 million dollar profit for this particular bank, which was then divided among the various “protagonists” of this “illicit financial affair”. In 1992, Parliament’s Special Court acquitted Andreas Papandreou of all “criminal charges” by a vote of 7 to 6, because once again in Greece’s political and justice system what prevails is the “law of silence” or “Omerta”, as it is called by the Italian Mafia in Sicily.
The financial-political scandal involving the Bank of Crete and the Greek government is just but a small sample of the hundreds and thousands of “shady” state transactions which are still very omnipotent, even at a time when Greece is going bankrupt!!!
The main cause for this “horrible state of affairs” in Greece during the last 30 years, originates in the political “strategy” of Andreas Papandreou, of his “political comrades” and of his “foreign mentors” in order to create and fortify the most effective “cliental state” and the most effective “cliental state apparatus” which would eventually transform all Greek Citizens into “subservient hostages”, captivated by and completely infatuated with a well formulated “unethical” and “egocentric” social behaviour whose real everyday motto which is still preponderant, is an old Greek popular saying which goes as follows: “ Go in mongrels and eat what you can, and leave no tit bits behind”!!! During the last 30 years, almost no Greek Citizen who has been implicated in the hundreds and thousands of financial scandals related to Greece’s “cliental state apparatus” has gone to prison; a historical record not only among the developed states of the world but also among the developing and the underdeveloped ones.
The “cliental state” which Andreas Papandreou had constructed under the “guidance” and “auspices” of the various “foreign financial interest groups” was comprised of tools and mechanisms which would obstruct and undermine any type of a real social merit system, real creative and constructive work, real state justice, real democracy, real culture and real social moral ethics. The basic social criteria for almost all of the Greek peoples from the time Andreas Papandreou became Prime minister of Greece until the present day, has been to project to society a “smart” and “cunning” image(the Aristotle Onassis type), to bargain one’s soul and ideas at the best “convenient price”, and the disposition of personal connections with individuals who have some type of access and influence within the state’s “cliental mechanisms”. At this point I would like to refer to some financial data which demonstrate accurately the “technical distortion” inflicted on Greece’s economic development by the various “national” policies of Andreas Papandreou and of his “socialist” government. From 1981, we witness a reversal in the economic progress of the country, since in 1981, Greece had a per capita G.N.P.(Gross National Product) equal to 70% of the European Community’s average, dropping in 1990 to 60% of that average; this always taking into consideration that from 1985 until 1989, Greece had received financial aid packages from the European Community worth billions of euros by means of the Integrated Mediterranean Programs(IMPs), whose aim was to support financially the less developed regions of the Community.
As we have already noted, from the time since the modern Greek state was founded(1830),the expansionist ambitions of those “international financial groups” involved in Greece’s geopolitical territory were based on 3 specific strategies, a fragile(corruptible) state or state infrastructure, a fragile(corruptible) society politically and economically, and finally the isolation of the country geopolitically but also culturally, especially in relation to the developed states of the West. In every historical epoch, the tools and the inputs varied in response to the particular international and internal political and social circumstances, nevertheless, the elements which remained constant and integral were the factors of “political conspiracy” and naturally of a “national sell off” by the largest section of Greece’s Economic and Political Establishment. Arriving now at the “all politically inspiring” period of Andreas Papandreou, meaning the 1980s and the 1990s, these foreign expansionist strategies for Greece had to be executed in a more “sophisticated” and “modern” way because they had to take into account a more politically mature and better informed Greek Society, as well as the successful completion of a long term “conspiratorial plan” which would ensure the “complete bankruptcy” of Greece, as a state, as a nation and as a society!!! The “terminal” and “irreversible” economic bankruptcy of the Greek State and of Greek Society, thus providing those “international money and securities organizations” with the means, the opportunities and the prerequisites to wholly control all the social, political and economic affairs and developments of the country.
From our various political and historical accounts, we have established that Andreas Papandreou as Prime Minister of Greece and even before, as a major political player in Parliament’s political opposition, was “able and willing” to gradually and methodically produce a fragile(corruptible) state or state mechanisms, as well as a fragile(corruptible) society politically and economically. Now, we shall witness how this “hocus pocus” Greek political figure and Greek political leader succeeded through his “distorted” and “ethnocentric” national policies in isolating his country geopolitically and culturally, especially from the powerful and developed states of the West.
Before becoming Prime Minister of Greece in 1981, Andreas Papandreou with his political party, PASOK, as political opposition in the Greek Parliament, communicated to the Greek Public political slogans such as “out of NATO, out of the European Economic Community(E.E.C.)!!!”, as well as “the E.E.C. and NATO are the same Syndicate!!!”. What these short statements were supposed to infer “ideologically” and “politically” was that in the Party’s political platform, it was officially recognized that the E.E.C. and NATO were both partners in an “expansionist front”, whose goals were to exploit and control politically and economically “the fortunes of the masses”, especially “the masses” of the Western European States. This “exaggerated political propaganda”, in principle representing a “leftist” and a “radical” political line, had a very positive response from large sections of the Greek Public, since it touched a Greek person’s exaggerated “ethnocentricity” and the typical Greek “ethnic bravado”!!! It was natural that this political stance by a major Greek political party would create an “antagonistic” and “lukewarm” climate in Greece’s relations with the United States and the member states of the European Economic Community.
The natural tendency of a Greek person’s “xenophobia” and “mistrust” in relation to the West, Andreas Papandreou reinforced it even further, even though as a good “hocus pocus” Prime Minister he decided that Greece should remain a full and active member state of the E.E.C. and NATO. First of all, the government of PASOK, Andreas Papandreou’s political party, undertook immediate negotiations with the United States to remove its military bases from Greek soil, but finally the Prime Minister agreed that the most important military bases would remain since they played a vital role in NATO’s defence network. Before becoming Prime Minister of Greece, Andreas Papandreou had initiated friendly relations with various Arab political leaders who the West then considered as dangerous to their economic and political interests in the Eastern Mediterranean and in the Middle East. Arab political leaders such as Muammar Kaddaffi of Libya, Saddam Hussein of Iraq and Yasser Arafat, head of the Palestinians and the Palestinian Political Movement. At the same time, Andreas Papandreou and his “socialist” government supported the “anti-imperialist” political positions of the Movement of the Non-Aligned Nations which aimed at “promoting peace and progress for all mankind”, as well as “the termination of the nuclear arms race between the United States and the then Soviet Union”, but in essence the main focus of this Movement’s political critique was the expansionist policies of the United States internationally.
With respect now to the European Economic Community and the states which represented it, Andreas Papandreou even before undertaking the responsibilities of Prime Minister in 1981, had “manufactured” all those preconditions and the political environment so that the relations of Greece with the E.E.C. would always be “controversial” and “unstable”; and of course we should not forget the fact that the European Community with its international economic influence and dynamism represented the “rival capitalist protagonist” to the United States in the Western World and in the International Community. Therefore, as George Papandreou, the recent Prime Minister of Greece(2009-2011) and a real “American friend”, so it was with Andreas Papandreou his father, also a real “American friend” but very well “camouflaged”, that all was tried to undermine the economic and political integrity and influence of the European Union internally and in the international arena. In 2010, George Papandreou as Prime Minister of Greece, had signed an official agreement paper which provided Greece with a loan of 80 billion euros from the International Monetary Fund(I.M.F.), the European Central Bank and the member states of the Euro Zone(states using the euro as their national currency). His “premeditated crime” was not only a “national” one, since with this official agreement Greece was relinquishing “permanently” and “unconditionally” any immunity protected by its national sovereignty, thus satisfying the demands of its lenders, it was also a “conspiratorial political crime” against the unifying and independent economic entity of the European Union, since it was the first time that the I.M.F. was permitted institutionally to intervene and “have a say” in the economic affairs and policies of the European Community, an international financial institution which is directly controlled by American Financial Interests. A year later, in 2011, the same “bipolar” Prime Minister officially announced that he intended to carry out a general referendum which would simply ask Greek voters if they want to remain in the Euro Zone, accepting all financial obligations to their lenders, or leave the Euro Zone altogether and as a natural consequence leave the European Union. This “deliberate” and “questionable” political move resulted in creating ” havoc” in all the financial markets of the world, especially within the European Community, since there was fear that a possible departure of Greece from the Euro Zone with its excessive debts to its foreign lenders, this would spark off a general economic crisis within the European Community which in turn would bring to the forefront the debt problems of other member states. Finally, the referendum did not take place but the damage had been done “one more time”, putting Greece “on a terrible spot” since the country was seen internationally as a “financial trouble maker”, which also involved the economic stability and integrity of the European Union, a very important player in the world’s trade markets.
Konstantinos G. Karamanlis (1907-1998) represented one of the most important political figures of the Conservatives in Greece after WWII, and with Andreas Papandreou(1919-1996) they were the two political personalities who practically fashioned the “make up” and the “structure” of the modern Greek State after the Second World War. Konstantinos G. Karamanlis served as Prime Minister of Greece from 1958 until 1963, and from 1974 until 1980. He also served as President of the Greek Republic from 1980 until 1985, and from 1990 until 1995. Even though in 1961 he was forced by the United States Administration to receive Andreas Papandreou back to Greece and allow him to play a major role in the country’s economic and political affairs, and even though the United States controlling the political strategies of NATO pressured him in 1974, as Prime Minister of Greece, not to provide military aid to the Cypriot Government of Archbishop Makarios after the second Turkish military invasion(Attila II) of the island resulting in its “de facto” partition, he had always been a “pro-European” Greek politician, contrary to the well camouflaged “pro-American” political stance of Andreas Papandreou. This is exactly the main reason why Andreas Papandreou opposed and fought so vehemently the national strategy of Konstantinos G. Karamanlis, as well as undermining the latter’s political status and integrity. Their political differences were not “ideological” but in essence originated from the historical fact that they had different “foreign mentors” who guided and supported them!!!
From the 1930s, the liberal Greek political parties aimed at Greece becoming a vital partner in the economic, political and cultural evolution of the developed countries of Western Europe. It was natural then, that after long term official discussions and negotiations with the then Prime Minister Konstantinos G. Karamanlis, there was the signing in 1962 of an association agreement with the European Community, making it the first state with an “associated status”. The economic advantages for Greece were many, as for example the abolition of tariffs and restrictive measures concerning Greek products within the European Community, the automatic abolition of tariffs with respect to the main exporting goods of Greece, the synchronization of Greece’s agricultural policies with those of the European Economic Community, and of course there was substantial financial aid “in the form of loans” from the European Investment Bank. In 1963, Konstantinos G. Karamanlis, even though he was the leader of a powerful conservative political party with a liberal political platform( E.R.E), he suddenly left “incognito” from Greece, establishing himself in Paris, France, where he resided until his return to Greece in July 1974, by invitation of some of the top colonels of the Greek Military Junta which was on the brink of political collapse. It is said that Konstantinos G. Karamanlis left Greece in 1963 “at a moment’s notice”, using a false name, because he was informed by some of Greece’s secret services that the Queen of Greece, Queen Frederica, had ordered his assassination. In 1974, Konstantinos G. Karamanlis founded the conservative “New Democracy” political party with which he won Greece’s Parliamentary Elections in 1974 and in 1977, serving as the country’s Prime Minister until 1980. Here, I would like to refer to a real historical event which occurred in July 1974, and this was that Konstantinos G. Karamanlis when he returned to Greece by invitation from the Greek Military Junta, he flew from Paris with the Presidential plane of French President Valery Giscard d’Estaign, who was a close personal friend and the political European figure who helped the most in Greece’s accession in 1980 to the European Common Market as a permanent and full member state!!! Another historical event which clearly demonstrates the “not so positive” attitude of Konstantinos G. Karamanlis with regards to the political and expansionist policies of the United States in the Eastern Mediterranean and in the Middle East, was Greece’s short term withdrawal from the military wing of NATO(1974-1980), a “status quo” which was essentially reversed by Andreas Papandreou himself when in 1981 he was elected Prime Minister of Greece. It was that same man who in the past, was proclaiming to the Greek Public, time and time again, that he was “a militant opponent” of the expansionist strategies and ambitions of NATO and of course of the United States.
We therefore witness that from the 1960s, Konstantinos G. Karamanlis had the vision that Greece ought to make a rapprochement towards and link its economic, political and cultural evolution with those of the developed states of the European Economic Community, while from the creation of PASOK in 1974, as an influential Greek political party in the opposition, as well as the ruling party after 1981, its President, Andreas Papandreou, “tried his best” to distort and undermine Greece’s economic and political relations with the European Community. During the 1970s and prior to the Greek National Elections in 1981, PASOK as a political party in the Greek Parliament had used for its political propaganda “simplistic slogans” such as “E.E.C. and NATO, the same Syndicate!!”, “out of NATO, out of the E.E.C.!!” and “the E.E.C., the lions’ den!!”-“high worded” political slogans which nevertheless greatly impressed the mostly “fragile”(corruptible) general Greek Public who loves being “perked up” by half truths and tough language; that is why even today, many years after the “catastrophic” national policies of Andreas Papandreou which right now are seriously threatening the “national autonomy” of the Greek State, he is still regarded by many Greeks as their “national saviour”!!! We Greeks, should all be really proud of ourselves(ironically) for acting like a “modern society” and a “modern nation”, then and right now!!! Let us finally be serious!!!
The “ethnocentric” and “radical” political slogans coming out of PASOK’s ideological propaganda, equating NATO’s military expansionist policies with the economic policies of the E.E.C., had two distinct objectives. The first was to create confusion in the political judgement of the ordinary Greek person relative to the real role of the E.E.C. concerning Greece’s economic development, and secondly, to introduce a general climate of “antagonism” and “alienation” with respect to a “common” and “unified” policy by all the member states of the E.E.C. involving economic development and a political strategy aiming at a Federation of European States. After 1981, when Andreas Papandreou was elected Prime Minister of Greece with his political party PASOK, the ideological differences and the political enmities with NATO disappeared “as if by magic”, while on the other hand, the “malaise” and the “inflexibility” in Greece’s relations with the E.E.C. was maintained and even reinforced, even though Andreas Papandreou and his “socialist” government had accepted that the country should remain a permanent and active member state of NATO but also of the European Economic Community.
The critical “political human link” between Greece and the European Union was Konstantinos G. Karamanlis with his conservative New Democracy political party. Therefore, Andreas Papandreou being an excellent “hocus pocus” politician, by using a variety of political manoeuvres or political “tricks”, he sought to “blemish” the political status and to “dismantle” the political influence of Konstantinos G. Karamanlis in the political affairs and developments of the country. In 1980, after the signing of Greece’s accession as a full member state in the European Union, Konstantinos G. Karamanlis resigned as Prime Minister of Greece and as president of the governing party, knowing full well that his New Democracy party would be defeated by PASOK in the upcoming Parliamentary elections set for 1981, and that consequently, Andreas Papandreou would become the country’s next Prime Minister. The Greek Parliament in 1980, elected Konstantinos G. Karamanlis as President of the Greek Republic, a state position which provided him with important political functions at intervening in government affairs; this based on the Greek Constitution which the Greek parliamentarians had voted for in 1975. Andreas Papandreou as Prime Minister of Greece, was therefore constitutionally obliged to accept and honour any political intervention initiated by the President, giving also the “impression” to the General Greek Public that there was a “consensual” and “friendly” climate within the Greek Parliament between his governing “socialist” political party(PASOK) and the conservative New Democracy Party which represented the main opposition; all this “for the sake” of Greece’s political stability and progress!!! In March of 1985, while there was a “consensus” and an “unofficial agreement” by the two major political parties in Parliament, PASOK and the New Democracy Party, that Konstantinos G. Karamanlis would once again be chosen as President of the Greek Republic in the Presidential Elections, Andreas Papandreou “at the last moment” introduced as his party’s candidate a Supreme Court Judge, Christos Sartzetakis, who had played an important judicial role in applying true justice under the rule of the colonels in Greece’s Military Junta(1967-1974). At the same time, Andreas Papandreou announced that he would try to revise the Greek Constitution of 1975, through the support of other political parties in the Greek Parliament belonging to the centre-left “ideologically”. Therefore, with two “tactical” and “underhanded” political moves, Andreas Papandreou, the “hocus pocus” politician par excellence, succeeded in taking away the Presidency from Konstantinos G. Karamanlis, while at the same time, in 1986, the Greek Parliament voted for a revised Greek Constitution which disallowed all the state functions allowing the President to exercise an “active role” in the political affairs of the country, thus making the Prime Minister and naturally Andreas Papandreou, the “absolute boss” in the Greek Government and in the Greek State!!!
As Greece had accepted to function as a permanent member of the E.E.C., it could not only enjoy the economic services and opportunities provided by the European Community, it also had to acquiesce and abide by the regulations and set programmes which directly involved the economic and political courses chosen collectively by the member states of the Community. Andreas Papandreou and his “socialist” government was “more than willing” to utilize and take advantage of the benefits and the economic facilities furnished by the E.E.C. , but within the context of real cooperation and consensus involving a common economic and political strategy which in the near future would lead to a Federation of European States, Andreas Papandreou who was a very capable “hocus pocus” politician, did all he could to obstruct this “constructive” historical evolution, thus servicing the economic and political interests of his American “mentors”!!! For example, the government of Andreas Papandreou did not follow the common policy of the Community concerning economic development, especially in the agricultural sector, which was Greece’s strongest trade card. There was an influx of billions of euros in financial aid from the E.E.C. to develop and modernize Greece’s agricultural economy; money which to a large extent was never invested in the economy but was “misspent” or “gobbled up” by government affiliated agrarian cooperatives, local civil administrations, civil servants, secretaries of ministries, politicians, ministers, vice-ministers, and naturally by many other official Greek “scoundrels”!!! The result was that in the 1980s, when Andreas Papandreou was Prime Minister of Greece with his “socialist” government of PASOK, Greece experienced a downward economic trend compared to the average indicator of economic development of the other member states of the European Community. I would like here to mention one more historical fact concerning the “deliberate” and “methodical” antagonistic attitude of Andreas Papandreou towards the Executive Administration of the European Community involving a personal demand for more financial aid for Greece, focusing on the country’s agricultural sector. In January 1985, Andreas Papandreou directly threatened Jacques Deslors, the President of the European Council, that Greece would veto the accession of Spain and Portugal as full member states in the European Union, if it did not receive a long term financial aid package. Finally, in March 1985, the European Council initiated the Integrated Mediterranean Programs(IMPs), providing Greece with billions of euros of financial aid, lasting until 1993!!! Was this cooperation or plain blackmail??
“If you can’t shed a tear, you haven’t sensed the meaning of life!!!”
(October 2012)
Greece recycled!!!