In return, the opposition has been making the counter-accusation that the government is “living in a realm of fantasy”. At first glance, one might dismiss these constantly repeated phrases as typical expressions of political hyperbole, but as the situation in Greece today grows increasingly incredible, it seems that the critics on both sides have been right all along and that we are indeed living in a new World of Fable.
Greek reality has always been described as a local phenomenon somewhat different from the reality that exists in other parts of the world, but rarely has it been so phantasmagoric. Without exaggeration, every day an even larger scandal nudges yesterday’s off the front page at the very moment when another is being readied for tomorrow. In fact, everyone’s lost track of how many scandals there are, except Mr John Palaiokrassas, an MP who enjoys playing with numbers.
Of all the scandals, however, none has been more enduring, more delightful, more astonishing, and perhaps none more appropriate and full of human interest than the prime minister’s liaison with Dimitra Liani. A thing much to be said in her favor is that she is no figment of the imagination from her anklet up to what a Paris newspaper prettily called her “voluminous charms”.
Although the Koskotas banking scandal had elbowed itself into the world’s attention two months ago, it was not until Premier Papandreou took his paramour to the EC summit in Rhodes that Greek and international realities met eye-to-eye, producing a fusion of remarkable explosiveness. Although she did not mix with the other 11 chiefs of government who, poor wretches, hadn’t even brought their legal spouses with them, Dimitra was paraded provocatively by her doting boyfriend before hundreds of foreign press people who had come to cover the summit (which was in fact stupefyingly dull) and ended by covering her. There is a popular PR belief that much media coverage, however bad or ridiculous, is better than none, and this PASOK accomplished with great effect, for it proved that Miss Liani’s “no coverage” was the best coverage of all. Besides, the publication of her topless in a photograph was an act of patriotism which gave Mykonos tourism its first good shot in the arm since the onset of AIDS.
As a result, Greece took center place in the world’s news last month for the first time since the return of Karamanlis and the reestablishment of democracy. In this way Mr Papandreou showed his considerable political skills. In a single coup de theatre he was able at last to get the international attention that Karamanlis always enjoyed and at the same time have his Mimi steal the scene from Melina Mecouri who until now, much to the prime minister’s chagrin, has been his government’s only international star.
The fact that Papandreou could only accomplish through farce what Karamanlis achieved by heroism does not belittle the prime minister’s achievement, for it is known that comedy is harder to compose that epics, and measured by the decibel level of international laughter, Greece’s sitcom broke all records in December.
The success of the Rhodes episode might have been hard to top but the composers of PASOK’s laughter-producing scenario are not handsomely compensated for nothing. Like the union of Ouranos (Heaven) with Gaia (Earth) the liaison between the prime minister and his airline “hostess with the mostes'” has now become the foundation of a new socialist religion which is said on government-controlled TV to be making converts up and down the land.
This manifesto was proclaimed recently by Alternate Minister to the Prime Minister Dimitris Maroudas, often known nowadays as Minister to the Bedchamber. His remarks on the great ethical significance of the prime minister’s love life have led him to become the most controversial arbiter of Greek morals since Pandarus whom, in fact, he resembles as he is often seen with the Ethnic Lovers tucking into mountainous taverna dinners.
Like an Old Testament prophet, Maroudas does not beat about the ethical bush, proclaiming to an awestruck audience that any criticism of the extramartial affair is “profane” or “unholy”, implying, therefore, that adultery is now to be considered “sacred”. Here he characterized the premier’s acts by two words, almost untranslatable in their emotional embodiment of traditional Greek virtues, leventia and palikaria – “manliness” and “valor”.
Not only is Maroudas a teacher of morals, it seems he has also read deeply into history, for he added, “This refusal to exhibit hypocrisy by hiding a double life has never taken place before on the world’s stage !” – a shattering statement of revealed truth that has left PASOK’s enemies totally confounded. “He has made a free, personal decision just as every Greek has the right to do.” This militant summons to action ought to do wonders for the national birth-control device industry.
It is interesting that Maroudas used the word “stage” because that is what his government is all about. Its whole existence is an act which has no reality outside its own invention. So, on the world stage it was greeted with laughter; on the local scene the amusement was tempered by a certain exasperation as nothing is more fatal to comedy than its going on too long.
It is nice to know, though, at this late hour that the government is finally getting the world attention it has been trying so hard to steal. For would Gorbachev’s recent pronouncement of unilateral disarmament ever have been made had it not been for the noble efforts of Mr Papandreou and the other Five? And if, at the next EC summit meeting – even if he isn’t there – Mrs Thatcher steps off the plane in Madrid accompanied by some beefy weight-lifter, who can be called the fairy go-between but the Great Moralist?
