Andreas Papandreou's legacy: 30 years since his death

This week marked 30 years since Andreas Papandreou, the founder and longtime leader of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement - PASOK, passed away, and Greeks are taking this opportunity to reassess his legacy. Consistently ranked among the most influential leaders of the post-junta era in Greece, Papandreou left his mark on Greek politics and society. Supporters will point to a charismatic leader who gave voice to the “unprivileged”, while his opponents slam him as a populist whose decisions continue to weigh on Greece. Regardless of where one falls on this spectrum, it’s undeniable that his impact on the country was profound.  Harris Mylonas, Kostis Kornetis, Alan Makovsky, and Lambrini Rori join Thanos Davelis as we dig into Andreas Papandreou’s legacy, exploring what brought him to power, how he reshaped Greece’s political culture after the collapse of the dictatorship, his controversial approach to diplomacy and how this impacted US-Greece relations, and his lasting legacy in Greek politics today. A little more info on our guests: Harris Mylonas is a Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University’s Elliott School and the producer of the documentary “Searching for Andreas”. Kostis Kornetis is an assistant professor of contemporary history at the Autonomous University of Madrid, a lead historian at Greece’s National Research Institute, and author of the books A Collective Biography of Southern European Democratization and Children of the Dictatorship. Alan Makovsky is a senior fellow for National Security and International Policy at the Center for American Progress who worked in the State Department from 1983 to 1994, where he covered southern Europe, including Greece, at the height of the Papandreou era. Lambrini Rori is an assistant professor of political analysis at the University of Athens. You can support The Greek Current by joining HALC as a member here.