A dark portly man was on TV congratulating his opponent on his handsome electoral victory, wishing him well in facing the economic challenges of the country. Announcing his resignation he set in motion the process of electing a new leader for his political party.
And, indeed, the Prime Minister handing over power to his rival was Costas Karamanlis. Perhaps the new Prime Minister, George Papandreou, would do well to beware of Greeks bearing compliments. He faces a difficult economic situation. Mr Karamanlis looked by far the more relaxed man to me.
Since Mr Papandreou is also the head of Socialist International, some commentators have seen his victory in the Greek snap election last weekend as a harbinger of better electoral news to come for centre-left political parties everywhere around Europe.
However, observers of the German election, where the centre-right has been strengthened in the recent general election, have said the same thing... about the centre-right.
I doubt that these recent elections, or the ones that will soon be held in the UK and, some time after that, in Sweden, will tell us anything significant if we examine them in terms of which political party wins. I think the common European features that tell an interesting story are others.
One is striking. This is the low-key nature of the campaigns and the fairly limited celebrations that follow for the victors. An observer of the recent Greek election commented that, in 30 years, he had never seen a victory followed with such a lack of enthusiasm, such weak hope.
In Germany, the low key was evident in the campaign itself. It has been reported that Angela Merkel deliberately did nothing to light up her meetings as the moderate mood suited her because her own profile is that of low-key competence.
However, the subdued mood has also been seen in Italy. While the UK campaign has yet to begin, so far, there is no enthusiastic general support for the conservative opposition, even though it is widely assumed to be on the brink of winning power after an absence of 13 years.
This general mood ties in with the second generally common element. This is the unpopularity of governments across Europe. It is true that Mrs Merkel has just won re-election and that Silvio Berlusconi surpasses the opposition in opinion polls. However, I doubt they are real exceptions to the rule.
Mrs Merkel was governing a grand coalition. There was dissatisfaction with her government, which was, however, blamed on her coalition partners, the Social Democrats, who suffered their worst post-war defeat. The very good showing of the conservative Liberals indicates that the electorate wanted a different kind of government.
As for Mr Berlusconi, his relative popularity (currently slipping in the polls) is due to the divided, uncharismatic opposition. No doubt, his control over the media is also much to his advantage as well.
Every government has its own story, which explains its relative popularity. However, over the last year, the international financial and economic crisis has affected how all governments are perceived. The handling of the crisis in each country has been critical.
On the one hand, it has strengthened the appeal of the political centre. A moderate approach to both markets and regulation seems to be the way to avoid such a crisis from repeating itself in the future.
On the other hand, the crisis has at the same time also strengthened the appeal of extremist political parties on the left and the right. The appeal of both the centre and the extreme appears to be a contradiction but it is not.
The centre is appealing without generating enthusiasm, especially for one particular party rather than another. It simply appears to be a sensible compromise.
The extremes are appealing to victims of the crisis. Their appeal is based on an enthusiastic rejection of the status quo, which is the difficult reforms that all economies must pass through. In this case, the appeal of the extreme doubles up as the appeal of a particular party.
In Germany we saw this in the appeal of the left party, at the expense of the Social Democrats; in Italy, we see the difficulty the centre-left has in picking up votes from the left proper. In the UK, we see it in the threat posed to the conservatives by the UK Independence Party.
This cocktail of elements complicates matters considerably for mainstream political parties. No matter how well they may be doing relative to their major rivals, the general situation at large makes for a political paradox: a volatile situation, on the one hand, but one where it is difficult to stir up enthusiasm for government.
No mainstream political party can take things for granted. As for us MEPs, we need to be more creative in showing our constituents why Europe is relevant as part of the solution to their troubles.
Dr Attard Montalto is a Labour member of the European Parliament.