Politics ‘peaked’ in 1980s
Andreas Papandreou, the father of the current PASOK leader George, is considered by almost half of Greeks to be the best prime minister the country has had since the return of democracy in 1974, according to a poll conducted for Sunday’s Kathimerini. The Public Issue survey indicates that 48 percent of Greeks feel Papandreou, premier for some 10 years, was the most able leader, compared to 26 percent who think that Constantine Karamanlis, the country’s first prime minister after the fall of the military dictatorship, did the best job. Papandreou and his PASOK party swept to power in the 1981 general elections and 36 percent of respondents felt that these polls were the most important in the post-1974 era. One of the achievements of Papandreou’s government in 1983, the creation of the National Health System (ESY), is regarded as the most positive change to happen in the last 33 years even though it has been much maligned in recent times. Just over 800 people were questioned for the poll.
