Word: papandreou
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Reasonable people expected that Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou would suffer heavier losses. He had campaigned for the June 18 parliamentary elections amid a series of scandals linking some members of his government to huge embezzlement, fraud, payoffs and illegal arms deals. On top of that, there was his public romance with Dimitra Liani, a former airline flight attendant half his age. But Papandreou's Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) slid only far enough to lose its majority. And since no other party won more than half the seats, Papandreou, who was hospitalized in serious condition last week with lung, heart...
...parliamentary power. The Alliance of the Left, which the Communists dominate, won 28 seats and could form a government with either PASOK, which holds 125 seats, or New Democracy. Communist Party leader Harilaos Florakis also demands catharsis but so far has refused to consider entering a coalition under either Papandreou or Mitsotakis...
Before he fell ill, Papandreou, 70, hoped to talk the Alliance of the Left into joining PASOK in "a coalition of the progressive forces." He dismissed the financial scandals, claiming they are simply plots instigated against him by "foreign and domestic forces." But last week another scandal was revealed as U.S. authorities arrested 14 employees of the National Mortgage Bank of Greece on charges of illegally transferring about $700 million to the bank's central office in Athens, apparently to avoid paying taxes...
...Alliance has proposed a short-term "ecumenical government" made up of public figures who are acceptable to all sides. Such a transition team would be assigned to set the cleanup in motion and then take the country into new elections. As Papandreou's health deteriorated last week, many in Athens believed it might be the one way out of the labyrinth...
Baker and Shevardnadze meet in Vienna with foreign ministers from 33 other nations and kick off a parley to redraft Europe's military map. -- Greece's embattled Papandreou fights back against an accuser. -- A journey into the heart of El Salvador's guerrilla war. -- American journalist Terry Anderson begins his fifth year of captivity in Beirut: a look at his tragic ordeal...