GREECE: Caramanlis Speaks Out

"Is Caramanlis coming?" That question has often been voiced in Greece since the 1967 military takeover, as Greeks wistfully recalled the democratic leadership of Constantine Caramanlis, who was Premier from 1955 to 1963. Last week the question was being asked with new hope. In a statement from Paris, where he has lived for the past decade, Caramanlis, 66, issued a scathing indictment of the regime of George Papadopoulos. He also implied that he would be willing to return home and head a new government to restore democratic rule.

Charging that the regime had disrupted the armed forces, damaged the economy, engaged in "unprecedented brutality" against protesting students, and lied to the people with false pledges to restore democracy, Caramanlis demanded that the junta resign, bring back King Constantine from exile in Rome and hand over power to "an experienced and strong government." In a slap at U.S. policy, he charged that Washington was "either in collusion with the Greek regime or wanted to be deceived by it in order to justify its own contradictory policy."

The statement caused a ripple of excitement throughout Greece. The Athens afternoon newspaper Vradyni devoted its entire front page to Caramanlis' broadside. The paper was promptly confiscated, but not before thousands of Athenians had snatched up copies. Two other papers that printed Caramanlis' comments were also yanked off the newsstands. Even so, many Greeks heard all about it on foreign news broadcasts.

The response from both Greek exiles abroad and opposition leaders in Greece, including Caramanlis' old rivals, was overwhelmingly favorable. In Paris, Constantine Mitsotakis, whose liberal Center Union Party had long opposed Caramanlis' conservative National Radical Union, declared that the former Premier was the only man with the prestige and widespread support needed to oust the colonels. "He [is a] strong man who can be trusted," he added, "a man with firm principles."

A Minister of Communications and Public Works when King Paul picked him as Premier after the death of Field Marshal Alexander Papagos in 1955, Caramanlis was primarily responsible for Greece's recovery from the aftereffects of the Nazi occupation and the 1946-49 civil war and for her rapid economic development. After his defeat by the late George Papandreou in 1963, he went into exile amid allegations of rigged elections and secret funds.

All that has been forgotten now, as even the leftists who once hated him see the need to put aside old political differences in a show of unity. Some Western observers are doubtful that Caramanlis, after so many years in exile, has the political muscle to instigate a change, though he is known to have broad backing among the military. His move was clearly timed to take advantage of growing opposition to the regime, most notably by rebellious university students (TIME, March 12). As an Athenian physician observed last week: "He must have support behind him. Caramanlis is much too smart to believe the colonels are going to go away just because he asks them to."