Drinks at the Palace

On the surface, Athens was calm last week: no new Prime Minister was cho sen, none was dismissed, and the Greeks, who consider politics a national sport easily as worthy of conversation as football, discussed in shops and streets the possible candidates with detached excitement. The very lack of news was impossible to ignore, for unless some resolution was found to the month-long confrontation between King Constantine and ex-Premier George Papandreou, the field lay open to military coup from the right or armed revolt from the left. Young King Constantine appeared more determined than ever to refuse Papandreou's demand for a recall to office or general elections. In an effort to find a replacement for the outvoted regime of George Athanassiadis-Novas, he called 14 politicians from all political parties to the book-lined living room of his Athens palace. There, pouring the drinks himself, questioning politely and listening attentively, he was at his charming, 25-year-old best. So impressive was the King that even loan-nis Passalides, the 80-year-old titular head of the E.D.A. (proCommunist) party, returned, glowing, to party headquarters. Monarchically miffed, a Red colleague snapped: "That's the last time you go to the palace!" Papandreou, a longtime republican, called it all the work of a young and rash ruler who was attempting to step out of the role of a constitutional sovereign and assume absolute authority. Street demonstrators loudly proclaimed that the King was the tool of his constitutional adviser, Constantine Hoidas, 48, and German-born Queen Mother Frederika, long a popular target damned in placards as "the Hitlerina." But in fact Constantine seemed to be making the essential decisions himself, relying on twelve years of training by his father, the late King Paul, who once observed that "the most important thing is for a King to know the feeling of his people." Did he know that feeling? Most political observers are still convinced that Papandreou would win a smashing victory if a general election were called. But, votes apart, the young King's patient attempts to find a compromise candidate showed some promise of whittling the Old Fox's power. By naming Novas, who rallied a Cabinet from the ranks of Papandreou's dominant Center Union Party, the King had succeeded in removing 24 Deputies from Papandreou's aegis. Last week two more Center Union leaders, including former Deputy Premier Stephan Ste-phanopoulous, Constantine's preference as the new premier, announced that they would no longer support Papandreou's me-or-nobody policy in Parliament. They claimed the backing of another 25 to 30 Center Union members. If true, it would cut Papandreou's hard core to fewer than 120 Deputies (out of 300), making it all but impossible for him to foil singlehanded the King's next choice for Premier.

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