“Their common ground was getting Greece free,’’ said Philip Tsiaras, who knew Papandreou and Samaras at Amherst.
Some four decades later, the two men are fierce political rivals at the heart of a high-stakes economic crisis that threatens to engulf Europe and throw the global economy into chaos. On Sunday, Papandreou, the 59-year-old Socialist prime minister, and Samaras, the 60-year-old conservative, agreed to a coalition government expected to implement a vast package to rescue the country from bankruptcy.
Papandreou, who endured months of protests over austerity measures, has agreed to step down once the coalition is formed. The transitional government will lead the country until February elections.
The man who could replace Papandreou also has strong Massachusetts ties. Lucas Papademos, vice president of the European Central Bank from 2002 to 2010, is an MIT-trained economist and currently a visiting professor of public policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where this year he taught “The Global Financial Crisis: Policy Responses and Challenges.’’
Martin Feldstein, a Harvard economist, described Papademos as a “sophisticated and very experienced economist who could put the Greek economy on a better path if the politicians will let him.’’
Since the students’ time at Amherst, Greece has transitioned from a repressive military junta to the establishment of a republic and entry into the European Union. The Socialist party assumed power in 2009, but the country soon faced a financial reckoning caused by years of borrowing and excessive spending.
Samaras, who leads the conservative New Democracy Party, has been calling for Papandreou’s resignation and immediate elections, and recently said his old college pal was “blocking any solution’’ to the debt crisis.
But in college, the two were good friends, expatriates whose home country was stifled by an oppressive regime.
“In effect everyone was in exile,’’ said Tsiaras, an artist living in New York City. “There was a natural camaraderie.’’
