Ending months of speculation, Prime Minister Costas Caramanlis set the nation on a political footing last Friday, telling voters to prepare for an early election on Sept. 16 intended to secure a fresh mandate for overhauling the economic and social systems.
Greeks last headed to the ballot box in 2004, and the conservative government had consistently said it would serve out its four-year term, ending next March.
But last Friday, Caramanlis, stung by a string of scandals, allegations of cronyism and widespread public outrage over the government's handling of a spate of deadly summer forest fires, said a trip to the polls in September was "vital" for the country's efforts to turn the economy around with sustained growth.
"We have taken important steps forward and succeeded in meeting important targets," Caramanlis said in a nationally televised address. "But we are obligated, now, to ensure our gains.
"We must forge ahead with fresh momentum and greater speed."
Caramanlis spoke after meeting with President Karolos Papoulias, who approved his request to dissolve Parliament.
Under the Constitution, early elections can be invoked for reasons of utmost national importance, and analysts have questioned the true pretext of the prime minister's decision. Even so, the call Friday was no surprise.
Early parliamentary elections have been expected since the European Union lifted the threat of sanctions against Greece in June following three and a half years of relatively austere fiscal policy that brought the country's bloated budget deficit in line with financial rules that underpin the stability of the euro.
Speculation mounted in recent weeks, however, as the government unveiled a raft of initiatives, including a multibillion-euro poverty-reduction program in what has been seen as a central pillar of its re-election campaign.
It also moved to create a new unemployment fund, increase pensions for officers in the Greek armed forces by 11 percent, and hire thousands of jobless in efforts to reduce unemployment and lift two million Greeks out of poverty.
Minority groups like the Roma were promised quick driver's licenses, and the country's 50,000 disabled were offered free access to digital television.
With 20 percent of the nation's households living below the poverty level, or less than €11,864 a year, or about $16,000, Greece ranks among the EU's poorest members.
Yet in recent years, a program of piecemeal economic changes has put the country's finances back in order, slashing the deficit from 7.8 percent of gross domestic product in 2004 to an expected 2.4 percent this year.
Unemployment has also dropped - from 11.3 percent to 8.4 percent - foreign direct investment has swelled, and economic growth is running at 4 percent rate this year.
"The economy's improvement is the trump card for the conservatives, and it's unlikely that Greeks will risk changing this course," said George Kirtsos, editor of a newspaper, The City Press, and a senior political analyst.
The question, he warned, was whether Caramanlis would be able to "effectively deal with a number of tough policy issues that he swept and kept under the carpet this term."
Among them: selling off unprofitable state enterprises, including the country's ailing national carrier, Olympic Airlines; slashing public sector spending, and overhauling an ailing pension system.
Caramanlis, 50 and the country's youngest prime minister, soared to power in 2004 promising to clean up crooked finances and public life after 11 years of socialist government.
His decisive victory translated into a bounce in popularity that greets most new prime ministers and governments.
But today, nearly four years later, controversial education changes, a bond-trading scandal and austerity measures have seen his party's popularity slip to a wafer-thin 2.5 percent lead against socialist opponents.
"The difference is now negligible," said George Papandreou, the socialist leader, whose Pasok party vowed an all-out political offensive against Caramanlis during one-month campaign period.
According to a flurry of public surveys, Pasok has failed to break the conservatives' lead since 2004.
More important, head-to-head opinion polls comparing Caramanlis and Papandreou have shown the prime minister leading against his rival by 15 percentage points.
Yet with widespread voter dissatisfaction and apathy measured at 12 percent in the latest poll, campaign strategists predict a highly charged campaign period to woo undecided voters.
On Friday, and during his 10-minute televised address, Caramanlis warned against growing political polarization, saying it was a factor that weighed in his decision to call for early elections.
"We haven't been perfect in our decisions and we don't claim to be perfect," he said. But "petty politics and attempts to polarize the climate are damaging national unity and, worse yet, undermining democratic normality."
(International Herald Tribune, 18/08/2007)