In short the elections are over and we have a new coalition government complete with cabinet all sworn in and making waves. There is no exit of Greece from the EU in sight and I do not think there will be. It has been a hectic three days with so much going on that it could not possibly fit into one single instalment. Here are some of the highlights of the inauguration.
Some lovely pictures for you dear readers to gaze upon. Above is a picture of our new Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras visiting our Ecumenical Patriarch, head of the Greek church, Ieronymous. Alexis asked for the reverends' wish or ευχή in Greek. It is a happy coincidence for mr. Tsipras that ευχή is also the word used to ask for the reverands' blessing. Mr. Tsipras also informed the Patriarch Ieronymous not to bother dropping by for the usual swearing in of the P.M. as he will opt for a civilian ceremony.
In a civilian ceremony the Prime Minister is sworn in by the President not by the Ecumenical Patriarch. As you can see in the picture above President Papoulias shakes hands with Prime Minister Tsipras folowing his inauguration. Back in Canada I would have had to keep writing "the right honorable so and so". Anyways the law alowing this has been in the books since the eighties when Andreas Papandreou seperated the church from the government....no Prime minister has dared to try it though. Till now. Canadians repatriated their constitution in the eighties. I guess we're all late bloomers after all.
Mr. Tsipras is not alone... having won the elections he is two seats short of a majority so he will be ruling the land as part of a coalition government. Mr. Kammenos, leader of the conservative Independent Greeks party or ΑΝΕΛ party is giving his full support. The two had the deal already worked out well before the electoral result and are the only anti-memorandum parties still in parliament from the 2012 elections see http://ellinomangia.blogspot.gr/2012/06/3-party-government.html. Funny how a marxist and a conservative can cooperate so well when they share a firm belief in democracy...
Out with the old and in with the new. Former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras opted to stay home and let his secretary hand over the keys of the Prime Ministers office. This may well be a world wide first if we do not take into account the BC Socreds. The residency was void of any government computers, files or anything else for that matter only the telephones were in their place. Even the vault was empty when mr. Tsipras entered. A very embarassing moment for Greek conservatives as a political culture does not alow for sore losers or for temper tantrums. His fear and terror campaign did not catch on with Greeks and his attempt at a smear campaign was abandoned early on. People here are just not stupid enough for these types of election campaigns. It is three days after the election and we already have a government and a cabinet and our first meeting with European counterparts on Friday. The whole Grexit scenario is quickly deflating and some former ministers are looking at possible jail sentences for embezzlement. Be patient mr. Samaras, as we all know you are an accomplice and your turn will come soon.
The wild card or joker of this election was the river party. Sorry, the River party. Not like the Canadian Dinosaur party, I hope it is still active, the River was supposed to be taken seriously and was supposed to come in third. It failed coming in fourth right behind the neofascist Golden Dawn party by a tight margin of a few thousand votes. This inspite of enjoying the full and undisputed support of the entire Greek media establishment. Its candidates participated on every tv panel, first time for an unelected party. The River was announced in the news on a drizzly Thursday last winter as a new party enjoying 17% support in gallup polls, having been founded the day before. Talk about the big lie. Its leader mr. Theodorakis is a tv personna who travelled the land this last year with a backpack sputtering all kinds of catchy rubbish to attract the young vote or anything else he could. Just like a pick-up artist or kamaki as we used to call them here. Their motto, Let's Change it All Without Demolishing the Country!
One could not write an article about these elections without mentioning former Prime Minister Goegre Papandreou, son of the late Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou and grandson of Prime Minister Goerge Papandreou, the late. Wow. Goerge decided it was time he founded his own party, named the Movement and ended up a few thousand votes short of entering parliament. This will be the first time in 92 years that the Greek parliament does not include a member of the Papandreou family.
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