ATHENS: Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis’ conservatives were given a second mandate for reform in weekend elections but their downsized majority was also a warning to avoid the mistakes of the past, analysts said on Monday.

Karamanlis’ New Democracy party won 152 out of 300 parliamentary seats in Sunday’s general elections, a far cry from the 165 seats gained in 2004.

In the wake of his government’s shaky handling of a fire emergency crisis in August, and unfulfilled promises to combat Greece’s endemic corruption, the result is a clear warning to Karamanlis, says political analyst Theo Livanios.

“The message of the election is a second chance for Karamanlis, but with a warning: you have won a second term, but if you continue in the same vein there might not be a third,” he said.

The prime minister’s narrow majority could complicate efforts to push ahead with reforms on his agenda, which include an unpopular overhaul of higher education and an urgent shake-up of the country’s tottering pensions system.

“With such a slim majority, it will not be easy for the government to move forward rapidly with reforms,” says Theodore Couloumbis, director-general of the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy in Athens.

Observers were drawing parallels to the New Democracy administration of Constantine Mitsotakis – the father of foreign minister Dora Bakoyannis – who gained a mere 150 seats in 1990. His administration’s agenda was paralysed by trade union protests and he fell from power three years later.

But Livanios argued on Monday that the situation is different today.

“New Democracy’s parliamentary group is more compact today, Karamanlis should not have problems of control. The question is how fast he can proceed with reforms,” he said.

On some issues, the PM could count on support which he had previously dismissed as ‘extreme’.

The small nationalist LAOS party will elect 10 deputies to the new parliament, and its leader George Karatzaferis – a former royalist, journalist and Euro-deputy.—AFP