'Panic' at Harvard for Papandreou’s ‘Redesigning Europe’ Lectures

Former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou is about to lead the ‘Redesigning Europe’ study group at Harvard, that has organised a lottery to satisfy the high demand to attend the study group.

Specifically, Harvard University has announced that: Due to the incredibly high demand to attend Mr. George Papandreou’s study group there is going to be a one-time lottery to attend the remaining sessions starting October 15. Only those with valid Harvard ID’s are eligible to enter the lottery. The winners of the lottery must be in attendance for the remaining sessions. If a participant misses a session, they will forfeit their spot in the study group and will be replaced by a student on the wait list. Enter the lottery between Friday, September 28 at 5PM and Wednesday, October 3 at noon. In addition, Mr. Papandreou will also speak in the John F. Kennedy, Jr. Forum later this semester. This event will be open to the public. George Papandreou, a Harvard graduate himself, was appointed as Visiting Fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics in Cambridge, Mass. His father, Andreas, the founder of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) and a former Prime Minister, was a Harvard-trained academic as well. Equipped with his “Harvard” education, Mr. Papandreou led PASOK from February 2004 to March 2012 and on 6 October 2009 became the 182nd Prime Minister of Greece. However, on 11 November 2011 he resigned so that a national unity government that would confront the Greek government debt crisis could be formed. His resignation was no surprise. During his two-year reign, Greece was almost paralyzed on a daily basis due to constant protests, strikes and riots against the austerity measures he imposed following the orders of international lenders. The austerity measures, in specific, were introduced despite the fact that his party had promised prosperity and employment preceding its election which put an end to another “problematic” reign, Mr. Karamanlis’s one. In addition, Mr. Papandreou became the epicenter of the whole world and “shaked” Europe as well as international markets when he proposed that Greece hold a referendum with regard to whether the country should adopt the $140bn Eurozone bailout deal. Harvard students pay approximately $54,496 per year. Testing their knowledge on “(Re)designing Europe” after the end of Mr. Papandreou’s study group would be interesting.