Greece’s Socialist leader George Papandreou trounced the governing conservatives in a landslide election victory after a campaign focused on dramatically different visions of how to dig the country out of its worst economic crisis in years.
Papandreou, a 57-year-old former foreign minister whose father and grandfather were both prime ministers, had insisted that Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis’ plans for austerity to face the international financial crisis were wrong. Instead, he offered a more optimistic solution, saying he would inject up to euro3 billion ($4.4 billion) to reinvigorate Greece’s economy.
After a campaign fought almost exclusively on economic issues — and following widespread anger over repeated scandals that had already whittled away support for Karamanlis’ conservative government — voters were persuaded.
