Papandreou, Andreas Georgios

▪ 1997

      Greek politician and educator (b. Feb. 5, 1919, Chios, Greece—d. June 23, 1996, Ekáli, near Athens, Greece), served (1981-89 and 1993-96) as the first socialist prime minister of Greece. His fiery speeches and nationalistic rhetoric made him a popular leader at home, though he often inspired bewilderment and irritation abroad. The son of politician Georgios Papandreou, Andreas, a Trotskyite, was imprisoned in 1939 for his work in a resistance group. Upon his release the following year, he immigrated to the U.S., where he earned a Ph.D. (1943) in economics from Harvard University and became a U.S. citizen (1944). He taught at several universities, including Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley, until 1963, when his father was named prime minister. Andreas renounced his U.S citizenship and returned home, where he campaigned with his father's party, the Centre Union, and won a seat in Parliament. In 1965, however, King Constantine, distrustful of both Papandreous, dismissed the government. Andreas's continued rise within the left wing of the Centre Union fueled speculation that he would become the real power in the government if his father was swept back into office in the 1967 elections. As a result, a military junta seized power, Andreas was arrested and later forced into exile, and his father was put under house arrest and died shortly thereafter. When the military dictatorship collapsed in 1974, Papandreou returned to Greece and established the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (Pasok). His anti-Western, anti-American views struck a national chord. Pasok won the 1981 elections, and Papandreou was named prime minister. Once he was in office, his foreign policies proved moderate; though he opened an embassy in Cuba, he renewed U.S. leases on military bases and never followed through on his threats to withdraw from NATO. Domestically, he introduced generous social-welfare programs, abolished censorship, and promoted women's rights. In the 1985 elections Pasok again won a majority, and Papandreou remained prime minister. His second term, however, was marked by scandal. Papandreou and three Cabinet members were charged with bribery and embezzlement. In addition, his extramarital affair with a younger woman was highly publicized. These scandals, combined with an ailing economy—Greece was the poorest country in the European Community—led to Pasok's defeat in 1989 and Papandreou's resignation as prime minister. After his 1992 acquittal, he continued as leader of Pasok, and with the party's victory in the 1993 elections, he began his third term as prime minister. His health, however, deteriorated, and in January 1996 he was forced to retire.

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