Costas Karamanlis was elected Prime Minister of Greece by Corina Ciubotaru

Elections took place in Greece last week, and Costas Karamanlis was once again elected Prime Minister. Thus, he has defeated George Papandreou and the socialist party which had ruled the country until 2004. The two men are descendants of high political figures in Greece and their families have a tradition in politics, and both the winner and the loser were surprising for the analysts. The Prime Minister and his party were elected despite dissatisfaction by the general public in regard to the way things were handled when fires devastated the country a few weeks ago. Meanwhile, Mr. Papandreou is the son and the grandson of former Prime Ministers of the country so he was expected to continue the tradition. After having lost the previous elections, he was accused of not being able to reform his party in a way that would guarantee future success. Due to the economic status of the country, the second poorest in the euro market despite a GDP increase of 4.4 this year, and to the handling of the fire situation, smaller parties finally got a break and an increased number of votes. One far-right party called LA.O.S. is the first one to enter Parliament since the country became a democracy in 1974 and even though Karamanlis' New Democracy now forms a majority in Parliament, it is not a strong one that can guarantee strong reforms. The party won about 43 percent of the vote and 154 seats in the Parliament, while Papandreou's PASOK won around 38 percent and 103 seats.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070917/ap_on_re_eu/greece_election;_ylt=An4HMPEPFWBDklQGjiWAUkqs0NUE

by Corina Ciubotaru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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