History
Foundation
The first members of the Party were the main organizers of the collapse of the
Military Junta of 1967–1974 and the re-establishment of
Democracy in 3 September 1974 . Its founder was
Andreas Papandreou, son of the late Greek liberal leader and three times Prime Minister
Georgios Papandreou Sr.
. Its founding mottos were "National Independence, Popular Sovereignty,
Social Emancipation, Democratic Process." Andreas Papandreou was
offered the leadership of the liberal political forces immediately after
the restoration of
Democracy, but in a risky move he declined, so the leadership was assumed by
Georgios Mavros. Papandreou, a very powerful orator and
charismatic leader, explicitly rejected the ideological heritage of his father, and stressed the fact that he was a socialist, not a liberal .
The First Years
At the
November 1974 elections the Party received only 13.5% of the vote and won 15 seats (out of 300), coming third behind the center-right
New Democracy Party of
Konstantinos Karamanlis and the centrist
Center Union - New Forces of
Georgios Mavros. At the
November 1977 elections,
however, the PA.SO.K. eclipsed the centrists, doubled its share of the
vote and won 92 seats, becoming the main opposition Party.
In Government
At the October 1981 national elections the PA.SO.K. 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,
after a strong request by the rest of the Party members and its
supporters, changed his policy towards both institutions. He proved to
be an excellent negotiator when it came to securing benefits and
subsidies for
Greece from the EEC. For example, in 1985 he openly threatened
Jacques Delors to veto the entry of Spain and
Portugal in the Community in order to secure more monetary aid for
Greece .
In 1986, the PA.SO.K. government
amended 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. The left-wing
Resistance movement against the Axis in
World War II was recognized after, and leftist resistance fighters were given state pensions, while political refugees of the
Greek Civil War were finally given permission to return to
Greece
. The National Health System was created and various repressive laws of
the anti-communist postwar establishment were abolished, wages were
boosted, an independent and multidimensional foreign policy was pursued,
many reforms in
Family Law to strengthened the rights of women and the
Greek Gendarmerie was abolished in 1984.
At the June 1985 elections, received 46% of the vote and won 161 seats,
thus securing a stable parliamentary majority for its second term in
power.
It continued to be popular for much of its second term, especially in March 1987 when
Andreas Papandreou
vigorously and successfully handled a crisis in the Aegean with Turkey.
By late 1988 however, both the government's popularity and Papandreou's
health had declined. The former, because of press reports of financial
and corruption scandals that surfaced, implicating Ministers and,
allegedly,
Andreas Papandreou
himself as well as because of fiscal austerity measures imposed after
the Keynesian policies of the first term. PA.SO.K. lost the June 1989
elections with 40% of the vote while the opposing New Democracy got
44,3%. The PA.SO.K. had changed the electoral law before the elections,
making it harder for the leading Party to form a majority government, so
the legislature was deadlocked. Its share of the vote in June 1989 was
not considered a failure; for months there was a concerted
mudslinging aiming the Party (mainly by the conservative press) .
Another election in November produced a very similar result. After a
brief period of a grand coalition government, in which the PA.SO.K.
participated, a third election in April 1990 brought New Democracy back
to power. Despite a 7% lead in popular vote over the PA.SO.K., New
Democracy could only secure a marginal majority in the
Hellenic Parliament,
electing 152 MPs out of a total of 300; The PA.SO.K. had secured a
larger number of representatives on a lower percentage of votes, as well
as a smaller lead, in the elections of 1985, under the previous
electoral system. Its representation in the
Parliament shrunk to 121 M.P.s in 1990.
In opposition, the PA.SO.K. underwent a leadership crisis when
Andreas Papandreou was prosecuted over his supposed involvement in the
Bank of Crete
scandal. He was eventually acquitted and, in a dramatic reversal of
fortunes, at the October 1993 elections he led the Party to another
landslide victory. He returned to office with 47% of the vote and his
re-election was considered by many a vote of confidence of the public
against his prosecution. In November 1995, however, Papandreou's health
began to deteriorate and the Party was racked with leadership conflicts.
