Word: greeks
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis has won reelection - but only just - in a heated election that gave him a shrunken parliamentary majority that may imperil implementation of key economic and social reforms. With all of Sunday's votes counted, final returns late Monday showed Karamanlis, who swept to power in 2004 as Greece's youngest prime minister, won about 42% of the poll against 38.9% by the rival Panhellenic Socialist Movement, or PASOK. The result was as much a personal victory for Karamanlis, who took office four years ago without ever serving a government post, as it was a blow...
...vote "a referendum on the right" at the end of a month-long campaign. Karamanlis also made no mention of Georgios Karatzaferis, the leader of the Popular Orthodox Rally, or LAOS, that won over 3% of the vote, becoming the first far-right populist party to enter the Greek parliament since the tumultuous fall of a military junta the ruled the country between 1967 and 1974. A former conservative stalwart whom Karamanlis expelled in 2000 for his extremist rhetoric, Mr. Karatzaferis benefited from the backlash against the socialist party, attracting protest voters who ostensibly wanted to vent their anger...
...months, Maria Protou, an 18-year-old bleached-blonde philosophy student, was looking forward to her maiden trip to the ballot box this Sunday. But then, a Greek tragedy transpired. Hellish blazes tore through forests parched by two months of intense heat this August, destroying thousands of acres of farmland, killing at least 65 people, and throwing the government's reflexes - and political fortunes - into question. Today, on the eve of the election, Prappa considers skipping the vote entirely, in protest of the tragedy. "It's either that," she says, "or casting a blank ballot or voting for a small...
...Karamanlis, 51, the scion of a Greek political dynasty that has dominated this country's politics for half a century, rose to power promising to clean up crooked finances and public life. In the wake of a bond-trading scandal that embroiled his government in allegations of corruption, however, Karamanlis in August called for elections six months ahead of schedule, hoping to win a fresh mandate. Since then, attempts by his opponents to ride on Greece's wave of discontent have gained little political traction for PASOK, whose mild-mannered leader George Papandreou has failed to lure leftist voters with...
...mercy of nature? Or saboteurs? Either way, Greek emergency crews and soldiers scrambled across the country Monday, trying to rescue scores of people trapped behind towering flames razing villages, forests and farmland to ashen grounds and molds of charred carcasses. Driven by strong and hot winds, the blazes have killed at least 64 people, including six children, in the worst wildfires to hit Greece in nearly two centuries. "It's a living nightmare," says Roula Baziotopoulou, standing on the tip of a craggy cliff, watching flames close in on the home she was born in, near the heart...