Greece: The Besieged King

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Another Crisis. By the time the Stephanopoulos government fell last December, few Greek leaders were willing to take on the task of heading a government. "There is not a single politician around who would be an excellent Premier," said the King. The situation seemed saved again when Papandreou reached an agreement with the head of the National Radical Union, Panayotis Kanellopoulos. Both agreed to back a caretaker government that would carry the country through elections to be held late in May. But the Center Union Party sponsored a motion that would have assured Andreas his parliamentary immunity between the time when Parliament adjourned and the planned elections. The National Radical Union, unwilling to protect Andreas, backed out of the coalition. This time the King asked Kanellopoulos to form a government, touching off the upheaval that has led straight to the military takeover.

"People's Revolution." The Papandreous refused to back Kanellopoulos, claiming that the National Radical Union had rigged elections in the past and would do so again. Army leaders, on the other hand, were dismayed at the incredible knot tied by the politicians and were ever more fearful that Papandreou would once again reap gains at the polls. Moreover, they knew that Andreas Papandreou had been saying privately: "I am convinced that Greece must have a revolution."

The military's mood was not improved when placard-waving, pro-Papandreou forces took to the streets, battling right-wing students in Salonica and police in Athens. "This will be a constitutional deviation, a royal dictatorship," Papandreou predicted. "We have only one answer: a people's revolution." To this the King replied: "If Papandreou starts a revolution, I will start the counter-revolution." Unable to get enough votes to form a government, Kanellopoulos dissolved Parliament, set the elections for May 28—and thus, wittingly or unwittingly, cleared the stage for last week's coup.

Something for Everyone. The man who led the coup was Lieut. General Gregorios Spandidakis, 57, the army chief of staff, who announced that a "royal decree" had suspended eleven articles of the Greek constitution—even though Constantine was asleep in bed when the coup took place. The army won support from the navy and air force, and the military set out to form a new government. In a brief and simple ceremony, the new rulers were sworn into office by Chrysostomos, the Archbishop and Primate of Greece. To show his disapproval, King Constantine did not attend the ceremony, refused to take to the radio to address the people.