Selection: Michalis Katsigeras

VICTORY FOR KARAMANLIS, SUPPORT FOR EDA: A considerable increase in the percentage of votes cast for the United Democratic Left (EDA) in last Sunday’s election has caused deep concern in political circles and among the public. Given the electoral victory by the National Radical Union (ERE, led by Constantine Karamanlis) and the likelihood, which has not yet been ruled out, that EDA could become a strong opposition force in the new Parliament, the news of the party’s increased share of the vote was the focus of interest in political circles and among foreign diplomats and journalists in Greece. According to impartial observers, EDA’s greater representation in Parliament can be attributed mainly to the fact that the party had been legitimized and had thus shed its reputation as a force for undermining national independence and democratic liberties. This was due to the repeated political mistakes made by the so-called centrist parties which brought this political organization, which is a successor to the outlawed Communist Party, out of isolation and gave it its present moral and political legitimacy in the country’s political life.