The most significant change in Greece in 2009 was the electoral defeat of the conservative government of New Democracy (ND) at the October 4 elections.
The loss marked the end of an era for the conservative party.

Outgoing Prime Minister, Costas Karamanlis was the longest serving president of ND, having led the party for 12 years.

He was also the youngest politician to ever lead the conservatives in Greece.

Karamanlis became Prime Minister in March 2004 on a wave of high expectations from the Greek electorate and with a clear mandate to face the problems of corruption in political life head on and to pursue structural changes in Greek economy, polity and society.

Five years and two terms later, however, the mandate had all but evaporated, leaving ND with it’s worst poll showing since its founding in 1974.

Rocked by the sharp decline in the Greek economy, the loss at the Euroelection elections and numerous scandals – namely the alleged bribery case of ND’s former Minister Aristotelis Pavlidis, the land swap deal with the Vatopedi monastery and the Siemens bribery scandal – Karamanlis looked shellshocked and ready to capitulate in his last few months of government.

The main opposition party until then, the socialist PASOK, under the leadership of George Papandreou posted an easier victory than expected, thrashing ND and securing a substantial majority in Parliament.

From the beginning of the year the then Opposition Leader called for early elections to be held to test the confidence of the Greek electorate in the Karamanlis Government, a call he maintained throughout the first half of the year.

The loss in the early elections of October 2009 saw the 53-year-old Costas Karamanlis, nephew of the legendary conservative politician and founder of ND Konstantinos Karamanlis, step down from the party’s presidency.

As ND cadres were licking their wounds, four contenders emerged in the leadership race.

With Dora Bakoyannis being the early favourite the other three hopefuls – Dimitris Avramopoulos, Antonis Samaras and Panayiotis Psomiadis – appeared to be faced with an uphill battle.

But the decision by Avramopoulos to withdraw from the race and endorse Samaras saw the expected landslide for Bakoyannis become a shocking defeat on November 29 by Antonis Samaras, who secured the leadership “ring” from the first round of the leadership vote.

While PASOK was enjoying the political hole left by ND’s leadership void, the news for the Greek economy were going from bad to worse.

Official figures for the public sector debt and deficit had to be significantly revised, drawing an angry response from leading figures and bureaucrats in the European Union accusing Greece of complete lack of credibility.

Coupled with a barrage of negative press in the world media and the downgrading of its credit rating by Fitch and Standard & Poors, Greece was chastised as the economic pariah of the Eurozone.

With political pressure from Brussels mounting for Greece to adopt stringent monetary remedies, the Greek PM George Papandreou chose a different economic path focusing on structural changes rather than immediate cutbacks on salaries and pensions.

Pundits agree that the approach adopted by Papandreou is a huge gamble for both the country and the Prime Minister. Only time will tell whether he will be vindicated.

However 2009 was not just a year of negative attention for Greece. The official inauguration of the new Acropolis Museum on June 20 enjoyed international acclaim and major coverage in the world press and provided a significant boost to Greece’s campaign for the return of the Parthenon marbles.

On the downside the launch happened five years after the Museum was originally due to be launched as a result of a string of hiccups and delays in fine tuning the exhibition space in the Museum.

Later that summer bushfires dominated Greek news, without reaching the catastrophic proportions of the 2007 fires.

The same could be said for the one year anniversary two weeks ago of the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos by a police officer.

Because his death had sparked angry riots across Greece in December 2008, Greek authorities braced themselves for a repeat of the violent clashes in 2009.

However the worse fears of the authorities proved to be unfounded as Greek police forces proved to be well prepared and handled the weekend of protests swiftly and effectively.