Panhellenic Movement wins control

Press, 26 October 1982, Page 9

Panhellenic Movement wins control

NZPA-Reuter Athens Greece’s ruling Panhellenic Socialist Movement has won control of most of the country’s local government, but appears to have lost ground' since it came to power a year ago. With most of the results counted in second round municipal elections yesterday, the movement had captured 143 of the 225 municipalities where final results were announced. The Conservative New Democracy Party, which ruled Greece for eight years until last October, won 39, the pro-Moscow Communist Party of Greece 22, and Independents 11. The movement looked set yesterday to exceed its target of winning 170 of the 276 municipalities in the country. Commenting on the results, the Prime Minister, Mr Andreas Papandreou, said that the people had given'the movement a massive victory and entrusted it with building a new Greece. The Communist leader, Charilaos Florakis whose party gave the movement candidates vital support in the elections, said the lesson of the results was that broader democratic cooperation was necessary and effective. The K.K.E. gained heavily at the Socialists’ expense in last Sunday’s first round of

the elections, but yesterday it threw its weight behind Socialist candidates who faced Conservative opponents. Yesterday’s voting was a run-off between the two leading candidates who in the first round failed to get the required 50. per cent majority. Second round polls were held in 140 towns, including Athens, Pireus and Salonica. The leader of new democracy, Evanghelos Averoff, said that the electoral strength of the ruling party had decreased substantially while his party’s popularity’ had gone up. New Democracy now had 41 per cent of popular support compared with 36 per cent a year ago, he said. Commentators said that the main result of the municipal elections appeared to be that the movement now depended more heavily on K.K.E. votes to beat off challenges from the Right. These commentators said that K.K.E. might press the movement to harden its stand towards N.A.T.O. and the European Community and the United States. Although Mr Papandreou has refused to make a direct deal with the Communists, local candidates of each party have been working closely in the past week.