Just as the European Union is experiencing the most serious economic crisis in its existence and with Greece on the verge of bankruptcy, the two major parties forming Greece’s national salvation government are taking every opportunity to clash and fire accusations at each other regarding respective government policy of the past. The situation is testing the strength of the executive led by the Prime Minister, Lucas Papademos, undermining its work and troubling its resolve and balance.
Two distinct stances exist within the centre-right New Democracy party led by Antonis Samaras. The first is that now is not the time for clashes with the Socialist Pasok party (led by the former Prime Minister, George Papandreou) and that New Democracy must clearly support the Papademos government without conditions in order to see through its aims. The opposite view, however, is that the party must speak out against Pasok and that opposition to the government is necessary, as “Samaras wanted early elections straightaway and the agreements reached only came around in view of the allocation of the sixth tranche” of international aid. A paradoxical situation now exists, whereby one party is opposing a government of which it is itself a component, with two deputy Prime Ministers and two ministers in key roles (Defence and Foreign Affairs). The Defence Minister, Dimitris Avramopoulos, told journalists that “opposition by a party to a government of which it is a part is an oxymoron”.
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