Yearbook 2007
Greece. According to CountryAAH, Athens is the capital city of Greece. At least 67 people were killed and 200,000 hectares of coniferous forests, olive groves and agricultural land were ravaged by violent fires in August, especially in the southern part of the mainland. Many suspected that the fires were caused by people who wanted to clear land in order to build tourist facilities and other buildings.
Just before the fires broke out, Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis had announced his election to Parliament on September 16. Georgios Papandreou, leader of the largest opposition party of the All-Greek Socialist Movement (PASOK), accused during the Karamanlis election campaign of trying to whip up a national crisis atmosphere in order to unite the country around the government. In the election, Karamanli’s conservative party New Democracy (ND) lost 13 seats, but still became the largest party with 42 percent and could continue to govern. PASOK gained 38 percent, including a decline. Two small parties on the left, the Greek Communist Party (KKE) and the Left Coalition (SYRIZA) went ahead strongly and the right-wing People’s Orthodox Alarm (LAOS) got its first 10 seats in parliament.
- According to abbreviationfinder: GR is the 2-letter acronym for the country of Greece.
Tens of thousands of students and university employees demonstrated on a number of occasions during the spring against the government’s plans to privatize some universities and colleges. Several of the demonstrations in Athens degenerated into crows as the police deployed tear gas to the protesters. Many universities were closed for several months due to strikes in connection with the protests.
The European Commission announced on 7 May that Greece had reduced its budget deficit in accordance with EU convergence requirements. In 2005, the Greek deficit was 5.5 percent of GDP, but in 2007 it was expected to have fallen to 2.4 per cent.
Greece weather in March, April and May
Average daily temperatures between 14 ° C and 25 ° C can be expected over the next three months. It gets warmest in May in Athens, while March is noticeably cooler in Thessaloniki. Temperatures in Athens are between 16 and 25 ° C and in Thessaloniki between 14 and 25 ° C.
Do you want to go on a beach holiday? The water temperatures are in March, April and May 13-18 ° C.
In March it rains depending on the region of 6 (Athens) to 7 days (Thessaloniki), in April to four (Athens) to 5 days (Thessaloniki) and May to 3 (Athens) to 6 days (Thessaloniki).
In the period from March to May , the sun shines an average of 5 to 10 hours a day. The sunniest weather is in Athens in May, but with less sun you have to get by in March in Thessaloniki.
Military dictatorship
Two military coups were being prepared in the run-up to the elections. Behind one plan was the General Staff and the Royal House, behind the other a group of lower officers led by Colonel Papadopoulos. Both groups expected the Center Union to win the election and that would prevent it. The so-called “colonels” were the fastest, and on April 21, 1967, the generals of Papadopoulos and Patakos, as well as Colonel Makarezos, took power with the help of 150 tanks and 3,000 soldiers. Papadopoulos was in a position to follow the coup plans of the General Staff and advance them. At the same time, he had close contact with the CIA and was able to secure US support. Papadopoulos also had access to NATO’s mobilization plan, Prometheus. The plan contained the names and addresses of all communists and left-wing radicals to be arrested in the event of attacks from the east.
Constantine was understandably unhappy with the colonels’ coup because they got him in the lead, but he cooperated with them and signed their decrees from day one. His so-called counter-coup in December 1967 was a great farce. It was so poorly prepared that the junta knew the plan in detail. Probably Constantine did not try to take power, but to “save face”. It did not succeed. After the junta, a referendum was held on whether the king should be allowed to return. The people rejected him. His role in the first phase of junta was crucial to the rejection of the people.
1974 Return to democracy
The military junta, led by Papadopoulos, had promised the people and soldiers “100 years of military rule” at the coup, but so long did not go. It worked for seven years and was supported by the United States, which is why it was allowed to sit for so long. Support for the dictatorship of the Greek major capitalists – Onassis and Niarchos – also played a key role. An international scandal took place before the US realized that the military junta had to be removed. Already in 1973-74 the support for the colonels was very poor. In 73, the colonels attacked protest demonstrations at the Polytechnic University of Athens. Several hundred students were injured, leading to international condemnation. In July 74, the Papadopoulos regime conducted a coup against President Vaneziz Makarios in Cyprus, which led to Turkish invasion and division of the island. After this unsuccessful interference in Cyprus’s affairs, a group of officers decided to remove the junta and ask Karamanlis to return from his exile in Paris. In the first election after the military dictatorship in November 1974, Karamanlis got 54% of the vote. A subsequent referendum abolished the monarchy. In June 1975, a new constitution was adopted and one of Karamanlis’ supporters, Constantino Tsatsos, was elected prime minister.
From 1974, Greece no longer decided to participate in NATO military exercises because of the conflict with NATO partner Turkey. This decision was upheld until 1980.
At the 1981 general elections, the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), led by Andreas Papandreu, won a comfortable victory. The first Social Democratic government in the history of Greece could thus take power. That year, the country became the 10th member of the EC. The new government sought an approximation to the Third World, especially the Arab world, recognized the PLO and staged a worldwide campaign to return aboriginal cultural treasures to the country of origin from the former colonial powers.
In 1983, the government froze wages, triggering a wave of protests and strikes, the largest in the public sector, which, however, reduced their right to strike. The 1983 census showed that women made up a third of the country’s economically active population, predominantly employed in the service sector, and were paid lower than men. Among the economically active women, 40% were farmers – without including the 400,000 women who worked on family farms without earning wages. The feminist movement was confined to intellectual sectors in the larger cities.
In the 1984 elections, PASOK won again, and this time by an even larger margin than in 81. The constitutional amendment in 86 gave greater powers to Parliament at the expense of the presidential office. The repeated crisis packages and the freezing of wages led to new protests and strikes. In November 88, information about the embezzlement was presented to the Bank of Crete. A scandal involving several ministers and led to several ministerial crises. The following year, the Greek Left Party and the Communist Party formed the Left Coalition.