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- <text id=89TT3172>
- <title>
- Dec. 04, 1989: World Notes:Greece
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
- Dec. 04, 1989 Women Face The '90s
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- WORLD, Page 61
- World Notes
- GREECE
- Partnership Of Enemies
- </hdr><body>
- <p> In the end there were only two choices: hold the third
- national election in less than a year, or adopt the
- parliamentary course of last resort, a government of national
- unity. Last week Greece's three warring political groups
- swallowed hard and chose the latter. In the new government that
- was sworn in last week, conservatives, socialists and Communists
- are for the first time ever steering the ship of state in
- unison. The new coalition, which is led by Prime Minister
- Xenophon Zolotas, 85, a former governor of the Bank of Greece,
- will remain in office until new elections in April.
- </p>
- <p> The uncomfortable partnership was made possible after
- Socialist leader Andreas Papandreou finally dropped his demand
- for electoral reforms that would have benefited the leftists.
- The former Prime Minister, 70, who has been charged with bribe
- taking and breach of faith, will have no formal position in the
- new government.
- </p>
- <p> For Zolotas, who is not a member of any party, the top
- priority is to repair the creaking economy, which is burdened
- by a large public debt and a 14% inflation rate -- three times
- that of the European Community. Several remedial measures have
- already been announced, including a 5% income tax hike and a 1%
- reduction in public spending.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-