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REVISTA IEEE 9

http://revista.ieee.es/index.php/ieee 255 Salvador Sánchez Tapia Defining a model for analysis of civil-military relations... of the Army Covenant62 at the political level. The development of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Covenant, were used by the Conservative opposition as a tool to erode the Labor government, and to gain public support, taking advantage of the high level of popularity of the armed forces among the British citizenship.63 Military unions are not legal in the United Kingdom. Since the mid-1990s, though, the CMR pattern is subject to significant pressures to introduce them in the armed forces as a way to fill the breakdown of trust the soldiers have on the chain of command as an instrument to protect and advance their professional interests. Although unions remain off-limits for the military, professional associations have been legalized, albeit with restrictions in their ways of action. In Greece, the Constitution of the Republic consecrates the political neutrality of the armed forces.64 As per the basic law, the members of the armed forces are not allowed to make public manifestations in support or against any political option, and cannot run for election to the Parliament unless they retire. Behind this official neutrality, and despite the successful efforts done by the military to adopt a democratic CMR pattern, there might remain a residual level of military politicization in the guise of a more or less loose adscription of individual professionals to political patronage networks. The already mentioned controversial appointment of general Ziazias as Chief of Staff of the Army by the outgoing PASOK government at the end of 2011, and his resignation only some seven months later in protest against the interference of the New Democracy Ministry of Defense in military appointments seems to indicate that politicization of the armed forces by civilians is not totally a thing of the past in Greece. The demonstrations of open support SYRIZA and Golden Dawn extended in September 2011 to a mob of hundreds of retired officers that stormed the Ministry of Defense, shouting anti-PASOK slogans and protesting for the reduction in pensions imposed by the government would offer still another example of instrumentalization of the armed forces for a political gain and to erode the political rivals. Unions and the right to strike are also off-limits to the Greek military although in 2012 the Supreme Court ruled that the armed forces should fully enjoy the right to associate, when not in operations, for professional purposes to protect their professional interests. In this spirit, a number of professional associations have been created, with some of them members of the Pan-Hellenic Federation of Armed Forces Unions (PFAFU), and umbrella organization of associations. 62  The Army Covenant is a military doctrinal document in which the Army, unilaterally, referred to the existence of a covenant between the British Army and the citizenship by virtue of which the British people should extend appreciation and support to the soldiers in exchange for their service and sacrifice. 63  INGHAM, The Military Covenant, p. 129. 64  Articles 29.3 and 56 of the Constitution of the Hellenic Republic.

REVISTA IEEE 9
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