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In government At the October 1981 national elections PASOK won a landslide victory with 48% of the vote, and capturing 173 seats; it formed the first socialist government in the history of Greece since 1924. Although Papandreou had campaigned for withdrawal of Greece from NATO and the European Economic Community, he rapidly changed his policy towards both institutions. In 1985 the PASOK government revised the Greek Constitution to remove most powers from the President and give wider authority to the Prime Minister and the Executive Government. Civil marriages, not consecrated by religious ceremony, were recognized as equally valid with religious weddings. At the June 1985 elections PASOK got 45% of the vote and won 161 seats, thus securing a stable parliamentary majority for its second term in power. By 1988 the government's popularity and Papandreou's health had declined. The former, due to a series of financial and corruption scandals that surfaced, implicating Ministers and, allegedly, Papandreou himself as well as due to fiscal austerity measures imposed after the destabilising Keynesian policies of the first term. Not surprisingly, PASOK lost the June 1989 elections with 40% of the vote while the opposing New Democracy got 45%. PASOK had changed the electoral law a year before elections, making it harder for the leading party to form a majority government, so the legislature was deadlocked. Another election in November produced a very similar result. After a brief period of a grand coalition government, in which PASOK participated, a third election in April 1990 brought New Democracy back to power. Despite a 7% lead in popular vote over PASOK, New Democracy could only secure a marginal majority in the parliament, electing 152 MPs out of a total of 300. PASOK's representation in parliament had shrunk to 121 MPs. In opposition PASOK underwent a leadership crisis when Papandreou was prosecuted over his alleged involvement in the Bank of Crete scandal. He was eventually acquitted and, in a reversal of fortunes, at the October 1993 elections he led PASOK to another landslide victory. PASOK came back to power with 46.9% of the vote. His re-election was considered by many a vote of confidence of the public against his prosecution. In 1995, however, Papandreou's health began to deteriorate and PASOK was racked with leadership conflicts. In January 1996 Papandreou was forced to retire after a protracted three-month long hospitalization, during which he kept prime ministership (he died six months later). He was succeeded by Costas Simitis, the candidate of the modernising, pro-European wing of PASOK, who won an internal vote against Akis Tsohatzopoulos, a Papandreou confidant. In the first days following his election, Simitis faced the biggest crisis in Greek politics for over 20 years, the Imia-Kardak crisis. Simitis was criticized for his soft stance against Turkey and especially for praising in public the American intervention. In a PASOK conference in the summer of 1996, following Papandreou's death, Simitis was elected leader of the Party and called early elections seeking a renewed public vote of confidence. Although the Imia incident had somehow tarnished his image, the country's economic prosperity and his matter-of-fact administration won him the September 1996 general election with 41.5% of the vote. Under Simitis' leadership, PASOK had two major successes that had been initiated by ND: In September 1997 Greece won the right to stage the 2004 Olympic Games and in 2001 it was confirmed that the country would be included in the Euro-zone, for which it had failed to meet the convergence criteria in 1998. Simitis won another term in April 2000, narrowly winning with 43.8% of the vote and 158 seats: a substantial achievement for a party which had been in power almost continuously for nearly 20 years. In 2000, after the assassination of Brigadier Saunders by the terrorist group 17 November (17N), and especially with the forthcoming Athens Olympics being a major terrorist target, significant pressure was exerted on PASOK authorities to bring the terrorist group to justice. Some amongst the western media had even gone so far as to accuse PASOK of colluding with the terrorists. The government intensified their efforts and finally, with a string of events starting at June 29, 2002, the 17N members were captured and put to trial. Nevertheless, PASOK was losing its traditional appeal to the Greek lower and middle classes. In order to revitalize PASOK's chances for the next elections, Costas Simitis January 7 2004 announced his resignation as leader of PASOK. He was succeeded by George Papandreou, son of Andreas Papandreou. PASOK hoped that Papandreou could reverse the slide in the opinion polls which saw the opposition New Democracy party under Costas Caramanlis 7% ahead at the start of the year. But although Papandreou reduced ND's lead in the polls to 3%, he was unable to reverse the view of a majority of Greek voters that PASOK had been in power too long and had grown lazy and corrupt. ND had a comfortable win at the March 7 elections, placing PASOK in opposition after eleven years in office with 40.55% share of the vote and 117 seats. Shortly after, ND did a financial audit which, according to the government, proved that PASOK had falsified Greece's macroeconomic statistics, on the basis of which the European institutions accepted Greece to join the Euro zone,as Eurostat was suspecting. PASOK is a member of the Party of European Socialists and the Socialist International. In the European Parliament it has 8 out of 24 Greek MEPs. On 31 January 2006, George Papandreou was elected President of the Socialist International, the worldwide organisation of social democratic, socialist and labour parties. Election results, parliamentary elections 1974-2004 See also | ||||||||||
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