Andreas Papandreou

Anyone involved in politics needs to have a strong stomach and plenty of patience.

Up until very recently, members of the Athenian elite were often heard complaining about New Democracy's leader: "Kyriakos [Mitsotakis] doesn't have what it takes. He must say more populist things, tell a few lies, it's not that bad." 

The Greeks have a strong Mediterranean, and short-tempered, character. This has often become evident in the past, particularly on foreign policy issues. It is a strange thing.

The journalist, author and former PASOK minister Yiannis Kapsis died on Monday morning. He was 88.

He was editor in chief of Ta Nea daily newspaper from 1974 to 1982 before serving as deputy Foreign Minister in the socialist government of Andreas Papandreou until 1987.

The first round of voting this coming Sunday to elect a leader for the "new center-left party" - as everyone is calling the coalition that will emerge from the process - is basically the first step in an effort to glue back together all the different pieces that resulted from the fragmentation of the socialist PASOK party.

I was recently reading about a foreign diplomat who got to know the late Greek prime minister Andreas Papandreou very well when he came to Greece for the first time in 1961. The two men were discussing Greece's economic outlook and the sectors of the economy that offered the best prospects at the time.

The theory and practice of Greece's Renewing Left - which later became one of the founding forces of SYRIZA (following, of course, numerous additions and transformations which altered the party's original character) - was formed through its opposition to the neighboring political forces, namely the Greek Communist Party (KKE) and PASOK socialists.

Greece is in urgent need of a strong center-left political force. It's time for egos to be pushed aside and for the prima donnas and wannabe feudal lords to step down from their high horses and unite under one umbrella. Never-ending group therapy doesn't lead anywhere.

Greece is possibly the one and only country that admires the art of the political turnaround. I often hear fans of former prime minister Andreas Papandreou praising how he railed against the European Economic Community, NATO and American bases, yet managed to keep the bases and keep the country inside NATO and the EEC. "He was a great politician; that was clever," they say.

Constantinos Mitsotakis was one of the most effective prime ministers in the modern history of Greece, but unfortunately he was one of the least appreciated while in office.

The early 1980s were a good time to be a foreign correspondent in Greece, as long as you were thick-skinned, adaptable and had a sense of humor. The early, passionate days of Andreas Papandreou's leadership gave us plenty of material.