By Richard Read, The Oregonian
George Papandreou learned politics from the barrel of a gun at 14, when men with machine guns came for his father, whom he'd hidden on their Athens roof.
The family went into exile in Sweden. Papandreou, who would follow his dad, Andreas Papandreou, to become premier of Greece, attended Amherst College in Massachusetts with Antonis Samaras — a political rival who is now prime minister.
In Portland on Feb. 26, Papandreou, 60, will kick off the World Affairs Council of Oregon's annual speaker series, which will subsequently feature a Middle East expert, a paleoanthropologist and the Dalai Lama. Papandreou, prime minister from 2009 to 2011, plans to discuss lessons of Greece's fiscal crisis and the future of the European Union.
Papandreou spoke by phone from Athens Thursday during an interview with The Oregonian. Questions and answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.
How did Greece get in such economic turmoil, and is it to blame for Europe's problems?
Well, that would be a nice excuse, wouldn't it, if 2 percent or 2.5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product of Europe was to blame for not only the European crisis but a crisis that would become almost a global recession?
Previous governments, particularly the one before I took over, mismanaged the economy quite badly. We ended up with a huge, huge deficit and a current-account deficit also.
Under the orthodoxy that then prevailed in Europe, if we just cut, just had austerity, then things would be solved, the markets would give it back.
What were you able to do about this as prime minister?
We made a lot of reforms. The people who were wheeling and dealing in power, money and the media were not so happy.
And then of course I had to cut pensions and wages for the average folk. I knew it was politically going to cost me. That's all right, as long as I can help my country avoid bankruptcy, which we did.
We made stricter fines and prison terms for tax evaders. We imposed taxes on offshore companies. We used Google Maps to see if people weren't paying taxes on swimming pools, for example. We had to confiscate something like 565 yachts in the first year because they weren't paying taxes.
These were things that hadn't been done before in Greece.
We have big problems in Greece, but they are basically highlighting some wider problems in the world.
Can Greece meet the International Monetary Fund's debt reduction targets?
The IMF itself is reviewing its policies. The austerity actually has had more of a multiplier effect than they had expected. It's become a vicious circle. They want to see more growth. The European Union is also rethinking how it's going to stimulate growth.
We're now approaching a primary surplus, we'll have no primary deficit in 2013. That's a major, major change.
We've reformed our tax system. We've made a lot of changes in the health system. We had about 60 regions in Greece and now there are only 13. It'd be like cutting down 50 states to 13 and making it more efficient.
How is your college dorm-mate, Antonis Samaras, doing as prime minister?
I had hoped that he would be cooperative (as opposition party leader) when I was prime minister. He was quite, ah, how to say, negative and highly critical and easily exploiting the pain of the Greek people.
I officially many times called on him to work together in these situations where you need a wider consensus. It's going on now in the U.S., in terms of how you deal with these big, more critical issues as opposed to day-to-day politics.
Now I think he's changed his tune completely. He's basically accepted the program which I had to follow. We do have our personal relationship which we at times keep, and get together.
At Amherst, were you and Samaras united in opposition to the military dictatorship in Greece? As a member of the Class of '75, I heard you wore blue jeans and carried a guitar, while Samaras wore a blazer.
I was in exile, he was not. He would go back to Greece. But of course, he was against the junta. I was much more involved in politics, including those in the U.S. because of the Vietnam War, human rights, civil rights, gay rights. These were days when students were quite radicalized.
The guitar was a way to hopefully attract the other sex.
Was that successful?
At times, yes, it was. It was the guitar but it was also Greek music. We had some Latin Americans, some Europeans, some Americans, too. We used to get together quite a bit, and we also drank I suppose too much.
These days, how are Greeks surviving 25 percent unemployment and high heating-oil prices?
It is very difficult. One problem is, we need to increase our exports. Our agriculture sector has great potential but we've become dependent on subsidies and not being competitive. Just look at olive oil.
With major cuts and higher taxes, there's more poverty and unemployment. I propose that we give vouchers to the unemployed and let them study anywhere they want during this crisis and be retrained. This will be a lost generation otherwise.
You've also proposed a green version of the Marshall Plan used to reconstruct post-war Europe?
Right. The United States could work with the EU, it could even entail Russia and China, too.
We tend to separate two crises going on in the same neighborhood, southern Europe's financial crisis and northern Africa's Arab Spring. Now that we have found new energy resources in this region, we can really develop green energy including solar and wind. Why not have a green Marshall Plan, which will bring in investments and stabilize the region.
If we had a wider program for investment to become more competitive, this would spur confidence in a growth scenario and we would be able to get out of this circle of austerity.
You've strongly supported European integration. Why did the European Union deserve the Nobel Peace Prize?
I have been supporting the European Union, but we are still a work in progress. We have to become more of a United States of Europe. We should talk about electing a president of the EU, rather than having one selected from the heads of government.
The Arab Spring may succeed or fail depending on whether Europe is ready to engage in a much more active way financially, economically and politically. Right now we're introverted in our own problems.
As foreign minister, you were able to help bring longtime adversaries Greece and Turkey together. Could the same spirit come to play now?
I'm going to be an advocate of this. Hopefully in Oregon I'll be able to talk about that, too.
We must work together on our planet because we cannot solve our problems alone, whether it's climate change, financial crisis or poverty and migration.
