In July 1994, former the ND minister of foreign affairs, Antonis Samaras, formed a new party, Political Spring (Politiki Anixi--PA). Samaras, seen as a likely successor to Mitsotakis until a bitter feud with the prime minister over the Macedonia issue, finally left the party in protest against the government's Macedonia policy. As he ran on the PA ticket in the October 1993 election, Samaras gained public sympathy from the name-calling campaign that ND mounted against him. After struggling early, PA received nearly 5 percent of the popular vote, becoming instantly the third largest party in Greece and electing ten deputies, including Samaras, to the Assembly.

After the election, Samaras maintained a high profile by criticizing the failures of both major rival parties. Not surprisingly, PA became the self-appointed guardian of the hard-line position on the Macedonia issue. The party stated repeatedly that Greek acceptance of any form of the word "Macedonia" in the name for the nation that had been the southeastermost republic of Yugoslavia would amount to treason. The party has advocated a similarly tough stand on disputes with neighboring Albania (see Foreign Policy , this ch.).

In the elections for the European Parliament in June 1994, PA benefited further from continuing voter disaffection with PASOK and ND, gaining nearly 9 percent of the vote. Beyond its strongly nationalistic positions on foreign affairs, PA has not yet articulated clearly its ideology and economic policies. Most of them, however, are quite similar to those of ND. Although PA claims to represent a coalition of forces from all sides of the political spectrum (and indeed, has managed to attract to its ranks a few figures from the left), the majority of its constituency seems to be decidedly conservative: in a summer 1994 poll of PA voters, more than 95 percent of respondents identified themselves as either right-wing, right-of-center, or center, in approximately equal numbers. PA's strongest support is in Athens, Thessaloniki, and regions such as the southern Peloponnesus and northern Macedonia containing large concentrations of royalist and ultraconservative voters.

In late summer 1994, PA stood at a crossroads. With little discernible difference between its positions and those of ND (other than the approach to Balkan affairs), the party was increasingly perceived as simply a vehicle for the personal ambitions of Samaras. Under these conditions, ND's electoral fate might determine that of PA. If ND seemed to have poor prospects in the next national election, PA might attract wavering and discouraged voters from the larger party. If, on the other hand, ND had a promising position as the election approached, Samaras might come under intense pressure to avoid splitting the conservative vote by forming an electoral coalition or actually merging his party with ND.

Data as of December 1994

NOTE: The information regarding Greece on this page is re-published from The Library of Congress Country Studies and the CIA World Factbook. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Greece Political Spring information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Greece Political Spring should be addressed to the Library of Congress and the CIA.