1985 Greek parliamentary election

Background on the constitutional crisis

Main article: 1985 Greek constitutional crisis

In 1985, Papandreou provoked a constitutional crisis by denying Konstantinos Karamanlis a second presidential term and supporting Supreme Court justice Christos Sartzetakis instead. His choice sparked further controversy, as it was tied with proposals of constitutional reforms aimed at increasing the power of his position by weakening the presidential powers, which had served as checks and balances on the executive branch led by the prime minister. The election of the new president took place in March 1985 under a tense and confrontational atmosphere due to Papandreou's dubious constitutional procedures. The leader of opposition, Konstantinos Mitsotakis, denounced the vote as illegal and vowed that if New Democracy won the elections, Sartzetakis would not be president by bringing the legality of the process to Council of State (), further deepening the constitutional crisis.

Scholars argued that the crisis was motivated by Papandreou's desire to divert the Greek electorate's attention away from the worsening state of the Greek economy (unemployment increased under PASOK from 2.7% in 1980 to 7.8% in 1985, annual inflation of the order of 20%, and widening trade deficits). According to a public opinion survey by Eurobarometer, the number of Greeks who believed that the economic situation worsened increased from 37.7% in 1983 to 70.2% in 1985, while those who believed that it improved fall from 31.5% to 12.8% in the same period.

Election campaigns

Both parties continued their confrontations over the constitutional crisis in their election campaigns, where the political polarization reached new heights. Mitsotakis declared, "In voting, the Greek people will also be voting for a president" and also warned that there is a danger of sliding towards an authoritarian one-party state. The president's office responded, "The president of the republic will remain the vigilant guardian of the constitution." From PASOK, Agamemnon Koutsogiorgas described what was at stake not as "oranges and tomatoes but the confrontation between two worlds." Papandreou followed this by characterizing the upcoming elections as a fight between light and darkness in his rallies, implying that PASOK represented the "forces of light" since its logo was a rising sun. Papandreou further argued that every vote against PASOK was a vote for the return of the Right, associating the Right of mid-1980's with the authoritarian and pro-monarchy elements of the Right in the pre-1974 era, with the slogan "Vote PASOK to prevent a return of the Right." The communists, persecuted by the Right in the 1950s, protested against Papandreou's dwelling on the past, pointing out that the 1980's were not the same as the 1950's. The Economist magazine described Greece as a "country divided," tearing itself apart and opening the wounds of Civil War.

Two days before the elections, Karamanlis broke his silence and urged the Greeks to be cautious with their vote (without explicitly advising who to vote for), commenting that PASOK had brought "confusion and uncertainty." However, Karamanlis' statement was not broadcast on TV and radio, which were controlled by the governing party, i.e., PASOK.

Results

In the event, PASOK was re-elected with 45.82% of the vote, losing approximately 2.3% from 1981, while New Democracy increased its share of the vote by 4.98% to 40.84%. Papandreou's gamble worked to his benefit because he gained from far-left voting blocks covering the losses from the centrist voters, and appealed to socialist voters who rejected Karamanlis' perceived hindrance of PASOK's policies.

Papandreou had the upper hand over Mitsotakis, because he argued that a vote for Mitsotakis is a vote for a constitutional anomaly, convincing a significant fraction of Greek voters. Historian Richard Clogg argued that the large-scale rally by Mitsotakis on 2 June at Syntagma Square may have panicked communists to vote for PASOK; the communist parties lost a significant share of the vote.

Results by constituency

The parliamentary results by constituency are presented in the table below.

Aftermath

After the election results, Mitsotakis accepted Sartzetakis as president and the head of state. However, the Athens One-member Magistrates' Court ruling in passing that the election of the President was irregular and amounted to an abrogation of popular sovereignty, while it considered that the subsequent political legitimacy (following the victory of PASOK in the 1985 election) did not negate the unconstitutionality of the act. Papandreou's constitutional proposals took effect in 1986.

PASOK government and austerity

After the election victory, Papandreou's government applied to the EEC for a $1.75 billion loan to deal with the widening foreign trade deficit (8.7% of GDP). However, the EEC imposed austerity measures as a precondition for the loan. The stabilization package was implemented by Costas Simitis as Minister of Finance. Papandreou touted the loan as a life savior for the economy of Greece because if they had not, then the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would have imposed more severe austerity measures. Simitis' policies had the intended outcome, with the inflation reduced from 23% in 1986 to 13.5% in 1988, and the Public Sector Borrowing Requirement fell from approximately 18% of GDP in 1985 to 13% of GDP in 1987. However, Papandreou was shaken by a widespread backlash, with long-running strikes and demonstrations by farmers and major unions in early 1987. With the 1989 elections approaching, Papandreou forced Simitis to resign from his ministerial position in November 1987, and the reforms were abandoned, returning to populist policies and violating the loan agreement. Greece started to fall behind in terms of convergence with EEC goals, economic competitiveness, dependence on EEC and state subsidies, investment, inflation, and growth.

New Democracy leadership speculations and fracture

Despite New Democracy's increased share of the vote, PASOK's 5% lead, combined with concerns over the party’s two consecutive electoral defeats (in 1981 under Georgios Rallis and in 1985 under Mitsotakis), sparked doubts among New Democracy's old guard about Mitsotakis's future as party leader. Facing internal dissent, Mitsotakis resigned in 1985 but later stood unopposed for re-election at the party congress, winning the backing of 82 of New Democracy's 126 deputies, 11 more than in 1984. His former rival for the leadership, Konstantinos Stephanopoulos, abstained from the vote and subsequently left New Democracy to establish a new political party, Democratic Renewal, taking nine MPs with him. Stephanopoulos criticized the ND leadership for its weak campaign performance in 1985 and for appearing to prioritize the interests of employers over those of workers.

Unholy alliance

The dominance of Papandreou in the elections caused frustration in the communist parties, who lost a significant electoral share. Moreover, there was growing resentment towards PASOK for its authoritarian practices and monopoly of power, while at the same time, it utilized the Left's ideology and voting power. In the , KKE party chose not to support candidates of PASOK in the three major municipalities (Athens, Piraeus, and Thessaloniki), which provided an opportunity for ND to obtain a new power basis to challenge PASOK. This alignment was both novel and unexpected within Greek society, given not only the parties' conflicting ideologies but also their positions on opposing sides of the Civil War. PASOK described this unannounced collaboration as "unholy alliance."

The alignment between conservatives and communists against Papandreou strengthened as a series of growing corruption scandals, most notably the Koskotas and the Yugoslav corn affairs, began to engulf Papandreou's second administration. These scandals ultimately culminated in the "katharsis" after the June 1989 elections, when the two groups formed a coalition government with a limited mandate to investigate PASOK's corruption, which led to the indictment of Papandreou over the Koskotas scandal.

Footnotes

Notes

Footnotes

Sources

Constitutions of Greece

Court decisions

Books

Journal

Web and other sources

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