GREEK PRIME MINISTER PROCLAIMS NEW ELECTIONS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ATHENS 001459 SIPDIS AMEMBASSY ANKARA PASS TO AMCONSUL ADANA AMEMBASSY ASTANA PASS TO USOFFICE ALMATY AMEMBASSY BERLIN PASS TO AMCONSUL DUSSELDORF AMEMBASSY BERLIN PASS TO AMCONSUL LEIPZIG AMEMBASSY BELGRADE PASS TO AMEMBASSY PODGORICA AMEMBASSY HELSINKI PASS TO AMCONSUL ST PETERSBURG AMEMBASSY ATHENS PASS TO AMCONSUL THESSALONIKI AMEMBASSY MOSCOW PASS TO AMCONSUL VLADIVOSTOK AMEMBASSY MOSCOW PASS TO AMCONSUL YEKATERINBURG E.O. 12958: DECL: 2019/09/03 TAGS: PGOV GR SUBJECT: GREEK PRIME MINISTER PROCLAIMS NEW ELECTIONS CLASSIFIED BY: Daniel V. Speckhard, Ambassador; REASON: 1.4(B),(D) Summary -------------- ¶1. (SBU) Following Greek Prime Minister Karamanlis's September 2 call for new parliamentary elections, it was announced September 3 that Greek President Papoulias would dissolve Parliament on September 7 and schedule new elections for October 4. As the campaign begins, Karamanlis's center-right New Democracy party faces long odds and internal dissension over the decision to go to new elections. At the same time the main opposition PASOK, which has a six point lead in the polls, has no guarantee of an outright majority, fueling speculation about a possible coalition government and/or another round of elections soon after these. End Summary. Karamanlis Makes the Call -------------- ¶2. (U) In a televised message to the nation, designed to coincide with the beginning of evening news yesterday, September 2, PM Constantinos Karamanlis proclaimed early elections. He announced he would visit President Karolos Papoulias today, September 3, to inform him of his intention to dissolve parliament and take Greece to the polls. Constitutionally, elections must be held within 30 days of such motion. Following the meeting with Papoulias September 3, Karamanlis publicly confirmed that elections would take place on October 4. ¶3. (U) In his September 2 announcement, Karamanlis appeared somber in calling for a "fresh popular mandate" in order to steer the country through the world economic crisis. The PM claimed his government had, so far, provided the necessary measures to lessen the impact of the global downturn and had succeeded in doing so. Karamanlis said the crisis was far from over, and a "strong government" was needed to push through with the necessary reforms and intensify the battle against tax evasion. Karamanlis directed blame at main opposition PASOK for "manipulating" the constitutional process and announcing, months ahead of time, that it would not agree to the re-election of President Papoulias in March 2010, so that the country would be required to have early elections in the spring. This "protracted electioneering" was certain to hurt the country, Karamanlis said, and the government was determined not to allow this PASOK tactic to succeed. Papandreou: "We Are Ready" -------------- ¶4. (U) Minutes after the Karamanlis message, PASOK leader George Papandreou was at the PASOK HQ press room to announce that the Karamanlis government had "collapsed under the burden of the impasse it, itself, has created." Papandreou strove to highlight the ideological divide between PASOK and ND ('Today, there is a contest between two radically different policies, attitudes, and choices'); issued words of a "confident" political force ('We have the knowledge, we have the political will, we know the problems, we have proposed solutions'); and addressed the traditional call to all Greeks to join PASOK ranks ('We address all Greeks, men and women, the great, creative majority of our society...') to conclude with a rallying cry borrowed from the Obama election campaign: "Together We Can." ND Parliamentarians Weary -------------- ¶5. (U) Upon hearing that Karamanlis was preparing for a message to the nation, many ND parliamentarians and party organizers descended upon ND HQ to express their opposition to an early poll with the party "greatly weakened" by the recent forest fires and the ATHENS 00001459 002 OF 003 incessant media "scandal mongering" over the past several months. All reports stressed the "deep anxiety" and disappointment in ND ranks over going to an early poll. Early elections, many ND cadres and MPs continued to insist, were an admission of "failure" and a self-inflicted wound with undetermined repercussions for the future of the party. ¶6. (U) Originally, sources claimed, Karamanlis's message was scheduled for August 26, but the outbreak of the fires near Athens led to a postponement. Far from being a "snap" decision on the part of the Prime Minister, the same sources and media reports claimed, the resort to an early poll was first considered right after the Euro-elections of June 2009 and became a "firm" option in early July. Election Dynamics -------------- ¶7. (SBU) PASOK, pro-opposition columnists and commentators triumphantly announced, is "confident" that it is on its way to forming a single-party government. A similar message was being bandied around by PASOK parliamentarians during live TV commentary after the Karamanlis announcement. PASOK, they declared, will "never" consider a coalition "with anyone," let alone the "disgraced" ND incumbent. The mathematical reality under Greece's complex electoral law may not support such confidence, however, according to a number of commentators. The current electoral law "has many traps," pundits underlined, despite offering a seeming advantage to the party that captures the largest number of votes -- which, right off the bat, is "subsidized" with 40 out of the 300 seats in parliament. The exact percentage of the vote a party would need to form a government on its own depends on the total percentage of the vote captured by the parties that fail to cross the 3 percent threshold required to enter parliament. A commonly heard prediction is that the leading party would need 41.5% of the vote. This is significantly higher than the 36.6% PASOK won in its first-place victory in the June European Parliament elections. ¶8. (SBU) If no party achieves the minimum number of seats for forming a government, the president will summon the leaders of the three top parties in succession to instruct them to form a government. If these efforts fail, the president, according to the constitution, convenes a "political leaders' council" to explore the possibility of a coalition administration. If this fails as well, the president can appoint a caretaker administration to repeat the general election "within a reasonable time," usually right away. This repeat election would be the first conducted under a new electoral law passed by ND in 2008, which appreciably lowers the bar for forming a single-party government, expanding the first-place subsidy to 50 seats and requiring the first-past-the-post party to get anywhere between 37.5 and 39.5% to govern alone. Recent polling shows that PASOK may be able to achieve these percentages with relative ease; presently, the spread between PASOK and ND is estimated at six percentage points, 33 to 27%, with roughly 20% of the electorate declaring itself "undecided." Comment -------------- ¶9. (C) As the campaign begins the likely order of finish is PASOK first, ND second, the far-right LAOS and the Communists significantly behind but easily making it into Parliament, and the far-left SYRIZA probably losing its presence in Parliament. But the exact numbers are not clear, and that will make all the difference in determining what kind of government is formed - and when. A large number of ND voters stayed home in the June Euro-elections; Karamanlis hopes to get them back in October but polling shows they are the least motivated voting bloc. However, ATHENS 00001459 003 OF 003 Karamanlis may be counting on his strong campaign skills to re-energize ND voters and hoping he can pull off a surprise victory. If no one party is able to form a government alone, there are a number possible coalition scenarios, including PASOK and the Communists, ND and LAOS (something LAOS has been positioning itself for since its strong showing the Euro-elections),or a grand coalition between PASOK and ND, but any of these combinations would require overcoming deep personal and political differences and would likely be unstable and temporary. The possibility of a repeat election is real, either by necessity if no government can be formed, by design in a compromise between the parties, or because the new parliament is unable to agree with a two-thirds majority on the president when Papoulias's term ends in March. SPECKHARD