(Early) elections were scheduled for September 9, and the pre-election period lasted a month. Since the revision of voter lists in 1993, 200,000 new voters have been added, with the number currently registered at 8,972,258 with high participation (78.23%). The result of the 1993 elections was almost the opposite of the previous one: while in 1990, with a fairly proportional system, N.D. received 46.9% and 150 seats, and PASOK 39.3% and 125 seats, in 1993 PASOK collected 46.8% and ND. 39.3% of the vote.

In the meantime, however, a change in the electoral law (in 1990), which gave the first party the opportunity for comfortable independence even with a difference of 0.1% from the second, made PASOK all-powerful with 170 seats against 111 for the ND. .from 10 POLAN and 9 KKE. Thus, while the 1990 parliament was six-party, the four-party parliament of 1993 was the result of a highly polarized two-party system (86.18%). It is noteworthy that companies conducting surveys did not live up to their forecasts.

In the field of foreign policy, the Macedonian question exerted constant and strong pressure on the domestic political scene, especially after the recognition in April 1993 by the UN of a neighboring country called FYROM, after which the tough foreign policy minister Antonis Samaras leaves the ND, establishes the “Political Spring” in June, and relatives to him, the new Democratic MPs become independent in September, causing the ruling party to lose its majority.

PASOK favored the acquittal of Andreas Papandreou in the January 1992 “Koskotas scandal” trial and the dissolution of the united Coalition. At the same time, as the government failed to cope with inflation (12%) and unemployment (8%), as well as the privatization of state-owned enterprises (especially OTE), Prime Minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis faced harsh criticism from within the party, as well as criticism from part of the media, where his popularity was systematically inferior to that of Papandreou. After the failure of the Maria Damanaki Coalition (who subsequently resigned) into parliament, PASOK became the main parliamentary representative of the interests of low-income social strata both in the countryside and in the cities where N.D. were the biggest losses (-8.4%).

However, PASOK’s victory (like that of the ND in 1990) was fragile, as a third of the voters – and especially the majority of the undecided (measured on average 12.3%) – voted not for one party, but against another. This is a variation of the “negative side identification” phenomenon. Among other things, this negativity was reinforced by the fact that 41% did not trust Papandreou, who is in poor health (compared to 49% of Mitsotakis), and also by the fact that about 20% believed that no party could solve economic problems.

The paradox of this election is that while the majority of voters identified themselves as being on the centre-right side of the political spectrum, the centre-left party won. And this is because: a) the unreliability of N.D. was larger than that of PASOK, b) disgruntled voters were mostly recycled within a two-party system (the sum of the votes of ND and POLAN was less than that of PASOK), c) the PASOK rally was 20% larger than that of PASOK that of ND.

A third of voters – and especially the majority of the undecided – voted not for one party, but against another.

One of the factors in PASOK’s victory was the retreat from the “socialist” vocabulary and the transition to “realism”. In addition, however, during the pre-election period, both mass gatherings and political advertising were dominated by military speeches, slanderous personal attacks by opponents, as well as phobic slogans. Slogans such as “do we take the risk?”, “Mr. Mitsotakis is spreading a mud virus”, “will we let Mr. Papandreou fool us again?”, “this troupe turned Greece back”, “riots in the Balkans”, are indicative of “N.D. .: bankruptcy faction”. While “consensus” and “modernization” were the dominant signs in 1989–1990, the 1993 elections were dominated by bitter personal confrontation, setting the stage for an even worse spirit and style of political rivalry in later years.

In the context of negative political advertising, the emphasis was on “image” at the expense of “problems”. And if it was about the “supply”, then something similar happened with the “demand” for political communication: the economy, education and foreign policy received little attention in the pre-election televised debates. The total length of the TV commercials was 39.5 hours, and the total campaign advertising expenditure rose to 7.4 billion drachmas (when the corresponding amount in the elections in April 1990 was 711,009 million). 89% of them were directed to television. Among the channels, ERT has lost the battle for viewers.

PASOK’s victory became Papandreou’s “justification”. Government of N.D. in retrospect, this proved to be the right bracket during the long period of PASOK’s rule, whose agenda has since changed drastically to manage the economy within Maastricht, an attitude summed up in Papandreou’s speech to the cabinet on 2/12. /1993: “Either debt will destroy the nation, or debt will destroy the nation.” Since then, however, the agenda of the ND has also changed, aiming to move towards the so-called “golden mean”.

Sources:

• Voulgaris G. (2008) “Greece from post-colonialism to globalization”. Athens, Polis Publishing

• Cathimerini (1993). Special issue: Elections-93 (edited by G. Mavris)

• Loulis, G. (1995). “The political crisis in Greece. Elections, public opinion, political events of 1980-1995”. Athens, Sideri ed.

• Papathanasopoulos, S. (1997). “The Power of Television. The Logic of the Middle and the Market. Athens, published by Kastaniotis.

Mr. Nikos Demertzis is Professor of Political Sociology and Communications at EKPA.

new sound

The word “rave” comes from the English verb “rave”, which means “to rave”. In 1993, the sophisticated youth of Athens raved about impromptu parties held in the most unexpected places: from the famous “Farm” in Oinophyta to “Alsos” on the Field of Areos. Gradually a new sound, a combination of hard rock, house and trance, overwhelmed the clubs of that time (+ Soda, Battery, etc.).

moving

Pre-election meetings are transferred from Syntagma to Areos field in connection with the construction of the subway. It was from there that Andreas Papandreou (October 7, 1993) was to deliver his last campaign speech.

Magazine

That was the name of the first issue of the magazine “01”, which was released in December 1993 and violated all the codes of the young magazine of that time, inspired by the themes and aesthetics of the most advanced London publications of the 90s. (The Face, etc.), thus communicating with the freshest and most unconventional that is growing under the traditional media radar.

What do I remember?

We went with the director of the newspaper, Leontas Karapanayiotis, to the house of Andreas Papandreou, somewhere in Ekali, where he lived with Dimitra Lianis. The villa on Agrapelis Street did not yet exist. We will get the last interview of the PASOK leader before the elections. It was a typical political discussion. Andreas was depressed by illness, but retained the spirit and charm in his speech.
At some point, Dimitra entered the room and the first thing that struck me was that she was holding something between the rosary and the rosary. He wedged into the conversation, bringing up the topic of the church, I don’t even remember what. He added that it was important that Andreas mentioned it in the interview because, as he argued, many voters are interested. Papandreou listened to her silently, not reacting. Later, Dimitra left. Re-reading today’s interview, I found only one mention of the need for a separation of church and state.

BURNING PANTS
Journalist

Revolution

If in August 1991 a group of CERN engineers created the first ever website, the famous World Wide Web, through which documents could be exchanged in digital format, then in 1993 we had the first browser that allowed users to view images between text and text. not in separate windows, as it was done before. It was named NCSA Mosaic or simply Mosaic. This is the grand beginning of the democratization of a technological conquest that was to change everything in our lives.

Device

On June 29, 1993, Telestet opens the era of mobile telephony in Greece, followed a few days later by Panafon. The first mobile phones, initially inaccessible to the average Greek wallet, “took root” only in Attica. It is indicative that in seven days of official commercial exploitation the number of subscribers in the country does not exceed 1000 people. The view is initially considered quite complicated, useful only for… doctors, “otherwise, what’s the point of looking for you at any time of the day…”.

zealNarrated by: Dimitris Rigopoulos