Democracy is usually the first casualty of severe economic crises, and Greece is no exception to the rule.
The current political crisis is the outcome of an economic recession, unprecedented in the history of Greece as an independent nation-state. The centre-left Pasok government and the wider political class have been the target of social anger, expressed violently and frequently in protests outside the national parliament, amid a sense of political insecurity and unpredictability. The political mood in Greece is vile: political parties across the board are discredited, the two-party system is being stretched to its limits, and protest politics are becoming the prime means of direct political involvement. Two years after Pasok took power in October 2009, Prime Minister George Papandreou and his government have been forced to resign and to share power within a government of national unity, with the prospect of another election early next year.
