Bloomberg
November 7, 2011
George Papandreou took a gamble on the most ancient of Greek traditions: democracy. Unlike his past success in extracting European bailout packages that avoided default, this idea helped lead to his departure.
During his two years in office, Athens became the nucleus of the European debt crisis and the Greek prime minister was its public face. While his legacy may be that of a man who tried to save the euro, he leaves his country struggling to maintain the needed flow of foreign aid.
“He was elected with this very grandiose idea of moving Greece to a higher plane and suddenly he was confronted with a situation he never anticipated,” Stathis Kalyvas, a professor of political science at Yale University, said before U.S.-born Papandreou said yesterday he would hand over authority to a unity government.
The move followed days of brinkmanship after the 59-year- old leader surprised his European partners as well as his own government with a proposal to ask voters fatigued by spending cuts and tax increases to approve the latest rescue package for his crisis-ridden country. On Nov. 3, he withdrew the referendum plan, which had sent markets tumbling worldwide and prompted a rebellion within his party.
The premier won a parliamentary confidence vote on Nov. 4, though his departure was the condition.
“Papandreou looks at politics like a chess game and he is usually several steps ahead,” Pavlos Yeroulanos, the minister for culture and tourism, said in an interview before Papandreou’s announcement yesterday. “The value of democracy and the voice of the people are extremely strong in his mind. It’s been that way since he started his political career.”
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