Finishing the Condemned

In the years since World War II, Greece has had 40 governments -- an average of two a year. Government No. 40, under moderate Stephanos Stephanopoulos, was as shaky as the shakiest. Its parliamentary majority never topped six votes. Even though he had lasted an incredible 15 months, Premier Stephanopoulos was anything but confident. "I feel like a Caryl Chess man," he told a visitor two weeks ago. "I know I am condemned. What I do not know is when they are going to give me the electric chair." As it turned out, they gave it to him last week.

In an unexpected move, Panayotis Kanellopoulos, leader of the conservative National Radical Union, announced that he was pulling out of the government coalition. Since his party provided 99 of the regime's 153 parliamentary votes, Stephanopoulos was instantly finished. Said he when told the news: "But why now? Even in Viet Nam they've declared a truce for Christmas." In Athens' complex politics, the reason for the timing was far from clear. But some saw the fine hand of wily old ex-Premier George Papandreou, who for months has been demanding that the government resign and call new elections. It was Papandreou whom Stephanopoulos ultimately succeeded in 1965, after discovery of an abortive plot to infiltrate the military with leftists. Kanellopoulos supposedly agreed to press for an amnesty for the accused plotters (among them, Papandreou's son); in return, the popular, antimonarchist Papandreou would consent to hold off on elections, giving Kanellopoulos a chance to build his own popularity with voters.

Whatever the reasons behind the government's collapse, nimble young King Constantine promptly quelled the crisis by appointing a nonpolitical caretaker Premier to prepare for elections which, Constantine decreed, will not be held until May. The man for the job: National Bank Governor Ioannis Paraskevopoulos. The white-haired former economics professor should do well. He performed the same task in 1964, and elections at that time went off so well that even his opponents admiringly dubbed him "the impeccable caretaker Premier."

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