Politics and Economics

Some main points in recent history are also included. This website is strictly neutral politically. We state only the facts. Below are links to some interesting opinions which may not be neutral. They could be enlighting but we do not take any position approving or disapproving the opinions expressed. We leave it to the readers to evaluate them. Here we present only facts.

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Greece became an independent country in 1828 AD. In both World Wars, it was on the Allied Forces side. It entered World War II on October 28th 1940, after Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas rejected Italy's ultimatum, saying NO. Italian army invaded Greece from Albania but was pushed back and failed to conquer Greece. German Nazis came to their assistance.

They invaded Greece from Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. Nazi occupation started in April 1941. Athens fell on April 27th. German troops evacuated Athens on October 12th 1944 which is considered the official Liberation Day. Unlike in most countries, 28th of October is celebrated instead, the date of saying NO to Axis's ultimatum. By the beginning of November, all Axis troops had left mainland Greece but remained in Crete for a few more months.

After World War II, Greece was the only Eastern European country not participating in Eastern or Communist Bloc. On July 9th 1961, Greece and European Economic Community (EEC) signed an Association Agreement that would lead to participation. Prime minister was Constantinos Karamanlis. On April 21st 1967, a military dictatorship lead by Georgios Papadopoulos started and the Association procedures were withheld.

In November 1973, there was a students uprising. On November 25th there was another coup by Dimitrios Ioannidis. On July 15th 1974, there was a military coup d' etat in Cyprus, sponcored by the Greek government. In response to that, Turkey invaded the island on July 20th and divided Cyprus into a Turkish and a Greek part, a division that remains today. The fall of military junta followed.

On July 24th 1974, Constantinos Karamanlis became temporary prime minister. Elections were held in November and Karamanlis's party won. New Democracy (Nea Democratia) stayed in power until October 1981, when PASOK with Andreas Papandreou won the elections. Until 2012, these two parties alternated in power. New Democracy is a center right party and PASOK (Panhellenic Socialist Movement) is a center left socilaist party.

Both parties supported Greece's participation in EEC, although Papandreou was critical in his rhetoric. Constantinos Karamanlis was prime minister when the Association Aggrement with EEC was signed in 1961. He was also the prime minister to sign Greece's participation in EEC, in May 1979. Actual participation started in January 1981. After twenty years, in 2001, when Costas Simitis (PASOK) was prime minister, Greece signed participation in Eurozone. It was included in the first countries to launch Euro on January 1st 2002.

The two pro - EU governing parties, New Democracy and PASOK, caused one of the worst economic crises in the world. Part of the deficit was hidden by the greek governments of New Democracy and PASOK. Actual deficits were much higher than the official ones. The situation became much worse during the 2007 - 2009 international economic crisis and the goverment would default in 2010, when George Papandreou (PASOK) was prime minister.

Defaulting is not being able to make payments. A country that has its own currency can never default because it can print currency. Of course this creates other economic problems but nevertheless, defaulting is avoided, when a country has its own currency. As a eurozone country, Greece has no autonomous monetary policy. To avoid default, a rescue package was agreed with IMF and other Eurozone members.

Harsh austerity measures were required to bring the deficit down. Voters' dissatisfaction increased with the two parties that had governed since 1974. In 2012 elections SYRIZA (Coalition of Radical Left – Progressive Alliance) got more votes than PASOK and became the first party in the center to left ideological spectrum. In 2015, SYRIZA won the elections and co-governed till 2019 with center right party ANEL (Independent Greeks).

The latest elections were in 2024 for Europarliament. Out of almost 10 (9,8) million registered voters the results in thousands of votes were; New Democracy 1.126, SYRIZA 593, PASOK 508, Greek Solution 370, Communist Party 368, Victory (Niki) 174, Course of Freedom 135, Voice of Reason 121, MERA25 101. There were more parties below 100 thousand voters.

Greek Solution, Victory (Niki), Voice of Reason are right parties. Communist Party, Course of Freedom, MERA25 are left parties. Turn out was 41,39%. Due to breakups in SYRIZA, PASOK has regained the first place in the center to left spectrum. This is according to polls but it has not been recorded in any elections yet. For the time being, New Democracy and PASOK retain the two first positions.

In terms of number of votes though, they have huge losses. PASOK got 3.234.777 (Andreas Papandreou) votes in 1993, 3.012.542 in 2009 (George Papandreou) and 3.007.596 in 2000 (Costas Simitis). New Democracy got 3.360.424 votes in 2004 (Costas Karamanlis), 3.093.479 in 1989 (Costas Mitsotakis), 3.088.137 in 1990 (Costas Mitsotakis) and 2.994.979 in 2007 (Costas Karamanlis). The population and number of voters has not changed significantly since 1974.

Greece is a parliamentary Republic. Formally, President is the highest position but in reality prime minister has more power. President is elected every five years and prime minister every four years during parliamentary elections. Very often, parliamentary elections are sooner than four years. The Parliament has 300 members.

A goverment must have the support of 151 MEPs (Members of Parliament) to stay in power. There is a reinforced proportional system. The first party gets more seats in Parliament than the votes' percentage. Also parties that get below 3%, do not elect any members in Parliament. So all the rest get sligthly higher percentage of seats, than their percentage of votes.

Greece has the the fourth highest government debt (159%) as a ratio of GDP. In the first three places are Sudan, Japan, Singapore and Italy follows in the fifth place. In 2010, a serious economic crisis started that lasted until at least 2018. Many believe that the crisis remains today but it is not as severe as it used to be. Greece is one of the poorest countries in EU.

In GDP per capita nominal values, it is sixth from the buttom (22.990$). The ten poorest countries in nominal values are; Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Poland, Hungary, Greece, Latvia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Portugal. Nominal values are affected by price level so purchasing power parity (ppp) values better show the economic level of a country. In ppp values (41.187$), Greece is the second poorest EU country. The ten poorest EU countries in ppp values are; Bulgaria, Greece, Latvia, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Portugal, Estonia, Poland, Lithuania.

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