Greece: The Besieged King

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Political Gap. Constantine, despite his legendary name, is not King of an ancient Greece, inheritor of the land of Minos and Alexander the Great. His is a new nation, almost 140 years old, that is still healing its wounds after centuries of foreign invasion and occupation, slavery and civil war that left the land and the people weak, drained of resources and with only their spirit for consolation. That spirit is at the heart of the present trouble, for Greece today has not retained much of its ancient legacy of moderation and temperance. The Greeks are a volatile, hotheaded and individualistic people whose political factions fight each other with the fierce ardor of the wars of the ancient city-states. The monarchy, by raising national leadership above the slings and arrows of Greek-style politics, is a needed umbrella in whose shade Greeks of every political stripe from Trotskyites to fascists wrestle for attention and control.

As royalty goes, King Constantine and his Queen, who is about to present him with their second child, are popular with the mass of the people. Schooled by his father since childhood in the art of kingship, Constantine ascended the throne at 23. But, for all his youth, he has proved to be an able leader. Until last week at least, he had kept Greece on the path of constitutional monarchy in the face of heavy pressures from both ends of the political spectrum. He has kept the country closely tied to NATO. In recent years, Greece has become an associate member of the European Common Market, and its economic growth rate has risen almost 8% annually. Constantine's handsome good looks, enlightened ideas about government and athletic prowess (he won an Olympic gold medal for sailing) have made him in the world's eyes a symbol of all that modern, progressive Greece stands for.

At home, nonetheless, the monarchy has recently come under increasing attack by many Greeks who question its relevance to the task of solving Greece's deep problems. The criticism has intensified as the political gap between the King and the Papandreous has widened. The King himself is protected from excessive public criticism by the penal code, but members of the royal family who were not protected by this law have come under heavy fire from the press.

A major target of the criticism is Queen Mother Frederika, who is blamed by the leftists—and by many others—for practically any action of the King's that they do not like. A tough, strong-willed woman who hotly defends royalty's every prerogative, she lives in retirement in a small villa at Psychiko outside Athens, frequently sees the King and his wife. Last winter, the criticism of the Queen Mother became so strong that in December the government introduced a special law in Parliament extending the lese majesty protection to all members of the royal family, including Frederika. On her part, Frederika voluntarily asked the government to cancel plans to award her a $100,000 annuity lest the action provoke another press storm.