On Friday the political world admitted, once again, that it is possessed by the syndrome of violence and fraud. The President appointed a caretaker government to run the country which has the presumption of egalitarianism – namely that the state mechanism will not used to shape the electoral result in favor of the Right or the Left.
There were standout cases in the past where violence and fraud were attempted or even actually used in the elections. In 1961 the right-wing ERE won the elections and formed a government amid accusations of electoral fraud. A few years later (in 1963) ERE made a similar accusation on rigging the electoral result. The caretaker Prime Minister Stylianos Mavromichalis, the President of the Supreme Court, was accused by ERE that at the behest of the Palace, he favored Georgios Papandreou so that he could triumphantly win the elections.
Generally speaking, the assessment is that caretaker governments were used to favor the Palace favorites. The Constitution of 1952 provided that the Crown appointed “the Prime Minister and his Ministers”. Based on this provision the Palace would chose a Prime Minister, either temporary (such as General Dovas, remembered for violence and fraud), or a politician with prospect (such as in the case of Konstantinos Karamanlis).
After the Restoration of Democracy in 1974, Karamanlis established the replacement of the Ministers of Interior, Defense and Media with persons of a broader acceptance and trust. Today the Constitution states that the caretaker governments are presided over by the President of one of the three supreme courts (the Areios Pagos Supreme Court, the Council of State and the Court of Auditors).
That is how Mrs. Vasiliki Thanou, President of the Supreme Court, became Prime Minister.
Reading the list of ministers is pleasantly surprising. Amongst those included in the list of ministers are people would could form governments that bear no relation to the usual circuses that “govern” every now and a again!
The party leaderships have the responsibility and tomorrow’s voters have started realizing it.
Stavros P. Psycharis
Originally published in the Sunday print edition
