IF GEORGE Papandreou were to accomplish just a fraction of all he promises to combat corruption, increase government efficiency and reform the state, then Greece would transform into the best of all possible worlds. The PM admitted as much in his first speech to his parliamentary group on October 14, announcing that citizens say they would be delighted if the government could do half of what it plans. The PM declared war on the rousfeti (political favours), which is as central to Greek politics as feta cheese is to Greek cuisine. Papandreou’s plans to upgrade parliament and expand its powers are certainly welcome in a system in which prime ministerial absolute monarchism has been the norm, but the proof will be in the pudding.

Beyond Papandreou’s high hopes for deep reform, his government seemed to be fumbling its first hard test in the area of rough-and-tumble politics. The port of Piraeus has been crippled by a two-week strike by dockworkers, costing the economy an estimated 3 million euros a day, and there was no end in sight at this writing. The dockworkers are arguing that Pasok had pledged to renegotiate the entire deal struck by ND with Chinese trade giant Cosco, but the government says it is in fact just negotiating certain improvement to benefit labour.

In New Democracy, the top candidates for the party leadership all finally agreed to let the party base decide. George Papandreou did that in 2004, when he was the sole candidate, so there wasn’t much competition. He did it again in 2007, defeating Evangelos Venizelos, the current defence minister.

On the foreign policy front, the European Commission proposed starting accession talks with Skopje, even without a settlement of its name dispute with Greece. That led to implicit threats of a new Greek veto. It seems Athens would not dare veto Turkey’s candidacy, even though Ankara is challenging Greek sovereignty and not recognising Cyprus, as it is already speaking of a “new roadmap”.