Split Persona

Papandreou raises tempers

Since he was elected just seven weeks ago, he has become the aging enfant terrible of European politics, the cause of what has become known in the chanceries of the European Community as "the Greek problem." Last week Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, 62, head of the first Socialist government in Greek postwar history, was on his best behavior for a change at the ten-nation E.C. summit meeting in London. Still, as members agreed to approve European participation in the Sinai peace-keeping force, Papandreou made some statements that were bound to anger the Israelis. Declaring that Greece in "no way" accepted the Camp David accords, Papandreou reaffirmed his position that the Palestine Liberation Organization was "the only spokesman for the Palestinian people."

The difficulties that Papandreou caused the E.C. over the sensitive Middle East issue were merely a sample of how troublesome Greece has become following the landslide election victory of Papandreou's Panhellenic Socialist Movement. Two weeks ago, for example, Greece complained about an E.C. resolution that supported the withdrawal of Libyan occupation forces from Chad. The Greek Socialists, who maintain warm relations with Libyan Dictator Muammar Gadaffi, cautioned that "for the good of Europe" the E.C. should guard against "imperialism" and "neocolonialism."

These righteous admonitions by the Greeks were especially resented by the French, who had sponsored the Chad resolution. Said one exasperated diplomat: "The Greeks' nuisance value has been so high since they came into the Community that I sometimes think we would have been better off if they had stayed out."

Papandreou himself has hardly waxed enthusiastic about Greece's E.C. membership, which was engineered by President Constantine Caramanlis 9 1/2 months before the Socialist sweep last October. Long before the election, Papandreou had expressed strong hostility toward the E.C., and has often called for a referendum on Greece's membership in the Community. At the same time, Papandreou has expressed opposition to some E.C. export quotas, demanding that Greece be accorded special status within the Community. When he objected to one E.C. regulation on agriculture at the London summit, Belgian Prime Minister Mark Eyskens interrupted him, asking, "Then why don't you just leave?"

On other issues, Papandreou's personality seems split between the bluff and bluster of the consummate politician and the ideological pronouncements of a dedicated Socialist. Papandreou's ambivalence was particularly apparent in his first major policy speech last week when he waffled on the two key foreign policy planks of his election campaign: Greek withdrawal from NATO and the removal of U.S. military bases from Greece. He indicated that Greece might ultimately withdraw from the military wing of NATO, but he left it unclear whether this was his firm intention or merely a suggestion. Said one high-level NATO aide in Brussels: "I believe Papandreou will negotiate. He knows quite well that Greece would have less influence if it moves out of NATO and Turkey would have more."

Papandreou's position on the four U.S. bases in Greece was even more ambiguous. Though he restated his earlier view that the bases must be phased out and proposed that negotiations begin next year, he also called for an "annual review" of the issue, raising the possibility that the facilities might continue in operation for years. Indeed, there is a suspicion that Papandreou may be using the U.S. bases as leverage in a matter of greater emotional importance to Greeks: the withdrawal of Turkish forces from the Greek-dominated island of Cyprus. For allowing the U.S. to continue to operate the bases, Papandreou might insist that the U.S. exert pressure on Turkey for a Cyprus solution.

So far the Reagan Administration is understandably uncertain about what Papandreou really wants to do about the bases. In dealing with the Greek Socialists, Washington has leverage of its own. U.S. aid to Greece is running at the rate of $200 million annually. "None of the things he is talking about is cost-free in security and political influence," says one State Department official. "There is really nobody to take our place." But before acting, Washington is waiting and watching for Papandreou to decide, once and for all, precisely what it is that he wants to do.

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