Euro Crisis Heralds the End of an Era in Greece

Spiegel
November 8, 2011

They were roommates in college. But now, fallen Greek Prime Minister Giorgios Papandreou and opposition leader Antonis Samaras are bitter rivals. Their two parties are to join in a unity government, but most in the country aren't hopeful that their misery will end soon. By SPIEGEL Staff

One of the two men, Georgios Papandreou, 59, was the politician Europe had favored, the model schoolboy. He implemented what his country's partners in the euro zone wanted from the Greeks. He designed cost-cutting plans, until the protests in front of the parliament building in Athens became larger and more violent. In response to marching orders from Brussels -- or, as many of his fellow Greeks say, from Berlin -- he raised taxes and fees, and he tried to trim down a sprawling government bureaucracy, until it bit back in resentment. He risked -- and lost -- his popularity among supporters who had voted him into office as his country's savior.

And when all of this did not have the desired effect, the reliable leader suddenly veered off course, in the eyes of his handlers. He proposed that citizens vote in a referendum to decide whether he had a sufficient mandate for such draconian measures. Suddenly, Papandreou's relationship with his European partners soured.

The other man, Antonis Samaras, 60, Papandreou's conservative and nationalist rival, was Europe's bogeyman. He was a member of the Greek administration that carried political nepotism and clientelism to the extreme -- and submitted bogus budget figures to Brussels. Samaras, now the opposition leader, rejected all austerity measures, saying that when he comes into power, he doesn't want to be "running a ruined country."

He called for extensive tax cuts and wanted to renegotiate the bailout agreements between Greece and the European Union. Europe's conservative leaders, like French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, could hardly contain their fury over their unruly fellow conservative. They felt that he was power-hungry and saw him as a politician who was prepared to sacrifice the entire country to reach his goals.

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