Papagos, Karamanlis, Papandreou and political tension

ProjectGreece.

The History of Greece, from 1800 to today.

A twenty-part series recounting the journey of modern Greece with sobriety, composure, and documentation.

Fifteenth episode.

Welcome to another episode of the series "The History of Greece, from 1800 to today."

In the previous episode, we arrived at the end of 1949. The Occupation, the Liberation, the December events, and the Civil War had left behind the dead, the displaced, destroyed infrastructure, and deep political trauma. Organised armed conflict had ended, but its consequences had not. 1950 saw the beginning of reconstruction within a state featuring a powerful monarchy, a strengthened army, anti-communist legislation, and a close connection with the United States.

The head of state was King Paul. On 6 January 1950, Alexandros Diomidis handed over to the caretaker government of Ioannis Theotokis, which led to the elections of 5 March. The proportional representation system dispersed the seats, and no party dominated. From 23 March to November, two governments of Sophoklis Venizelos and one of Nikolaos Plastiras alternated. These changes were not all new popular mandates; they were also attempts to form a viable parliamentary majority.

More precisely, Venizelos governed from 23 March to 15 April, Plastiras until 21 August, and Venizelos again until 13 September. On that day, he formed a new cabinet structure, which lasted until 3 November. This detailed succession shows why the period cannot be simply summarised as a "Centrist government": personal disagreements, royal appointment, and fragile alliances repeatedly changed the cabinet.

On 3 November 1950, Plastiras returned to the premiership. After the elections of 9 September 1951, Venizelos formed a government from 27 October to 1 November, and then Plastiras governed until 11 October 1952. In 1951, the Greek Rally of Field Marshal Alexandros Papagos emerged, while the United Democratic Left became a legal representative body for a political space whose Communist Party remained outlawed.

The centrist governments attempted limited measures of leniency and the decongestion of prisons, but executions for Civil War-related offences had not ceased. The execution of Nikos Beloyannis and three of his co-defendants in March 1952, following a court-martial, provoked international reactions. The event shows the limits of post-civil war normalisation: elections and parliamentary governments functioned, while at the same time an exceptional legal and repressive framework remained in force.

On 18 February 1952, Greece and Turkey became members of NATO. Accession offered security and military aid during the Cold War, but also cemented the country’s western strategic choice. That same year, the Constitution of 1952 was passed, maintaining the crowned democracy and significant powers for the Crown, in a society where extraordinary anti-communist mechanisms and certificates of social conviction restricted the equality of citizens.

The elections of 16 November 1952 were held using a majoritarian system. The caretaker government of Dimitrios Kiousopoulos preceded them, from 11 October. The Greek Rally won a large majority of seats, and on 19 November, Papagos became Prime Minister. The system transformed a clear electoral victory into a much stronger parliamentary dominance; votes and seats were not the same magnitude.

The American aid of the Marshall Plan, which had begun in 1948 and concluded in 1952, financed imports, energy, transport, and productive recovery. Its contribution was significant, but not exclusive: Greek labour, state choices, and private capital co-shaped the reconstruction. The aid was accompanied by American influence on policy priorities and was not distributed without social conflict.

In April 1953, the Papagos government, with Spyros Markezinis in charge of economic policy, devalued the drachma by 50% against the dollar and liberalised part of foreign trade. In 1954, three zeros were removed: 1 new drachma equalled 1,000 old ones. Stabilisation contributed to lower inflation and high growth, but austerity, low wages, and unequal access to credit showed that macroeconomic indicators do not describe every life.

The Cyprus issue became a central concern. In 1954, the Greek government appealed to the UN in favour of self-determination. On 1 April 1955, EOKA, under Georgios Grivas, began an armed struggle against British colonial administration with the goal of enosis (union). British repression, executions, attacks, and increasing Greek-Turkish tension followed. We do not present Cyprus as a conflict between only two states: Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots, and the British had different political forces, goals, and experiences.

Papagos died on 4 October 1955. On 6 October, King Paul appointed Konstantinos Karamanlis as Prime Minister, a choice that surprised older members of the Rally. The appointment was constitutionally possible but served as a reminder of the active role of the Crown in government succession. Karamanlis founded the National Radical Union and requested a new electoral mandate.

In the elections of 19 February 1956, the Democratic Union gathered marginally more votes nationwide, but the ERE won more seats and formed a government on 29 February. The complex electoral system, which differed by region, favoured the ERE. It is not correct to hide the discrepancy, but neither is it correct to transform every vote into proof of fraud without evidence.

The decade of development transformed daily life. Construction and the *antiparochi* system (land-for-apartments exchange) changed Athens and Thessaloniki; roads, electricity, industry, shipping, and tourism expanded. At the same time, people left villages for the cities or emigrated to West Germany, Belgium, Australia, and elsewhere. Remittances supported families and provided foreign currency, but migration meant separation, precarious work, and the depopulation of regions.

Urbanisation did not occur through a unified state housing plan. Small properties were exchanged for apartments, informal settlements expanded, and family savings financed a large part of construction. The apartment, the electric refrigerator, or access to utilities became markers of an improved life, but anarchic building, the lack of public spaces, and the unequal provision of services created problems that would persist.

In March 1958, Karamanlis resigned, and the caretaker government of Konstantinos Georgakopoulos led to the elections of 11 May. The ERE won, and Karamanlis returned on 17 May. The EDA emerged as the official opposition, a development that worried the Palace, security forces, and Western allies. The legal parliamentary rise of the Left coexisted with surveillance, persecution, and the post-civil war regime of emergency legislation.

In Zurich, on 11 February 1959, Greece and Turkey agreed on the framework for a solution for Cyprus. In London, on 19 February, Britain and the leaders of the two Cypriot communities accepted it. The solution excluded both union and partition and provided for an independent Republic, a complex bi-communal constitutional structure, British sovereign bases, and a guarantor role for Greece, Turkey, and Britain. On 16 August 1960, the Republic of Cyprus was established.

The changes were also visible in mass culture: radio, cinema, popular music, and later television created shared images of a more consumerist life. They did not, however, eliminate class or gender differences. Many households acquired new goods through the work of more family members, migrant remittances, or informal employment, while social security and public services developed unevenly by sector and location.

For the elections of 29 October 1961, the government had been handed over on 20 September to the caretaker Prime Minister Konstantinos Dovas. The ERE won, and Karamanlis formed a government on 4 November. The Centre Union and the Left denounced "violence and fraud," and Georgios Papandreou declared an "Unyielding Struggle" (Anendotos). Irregularities, pressures, and a state plan for anti-communist mobilisation were documented, but their exact extent and effect on the final result remain a subject of historiographical debate.

On 22 May 1963, after a peace rally in Thessaloniki, the Leftist MP Grigoris Lambrakis was fatally struck by men on a three-wheeled vehicle and died on 27 May. The judicial investigation revealed connections between the perpetrators and anti-communist mechanisms, as well as the responsibilities of police officers. The term "parastate" describes this web, but not a single, fully mapped organisation or proven order from the government.

In June 1963, following a conflict with the Palace over policy and a planned royal trip to Britain, Karamanlis resigned and later departed for abroad. Panagiotis Pipinelis governed from 19 June to 29 September, and the caretaker Stylianos Mavromichalis until the elections. On 3 November, the Centre Union came first, and on 8 November, Papandreou formed a minority government.

The transition of 1963 shows that a change of government could still be achieved through the ballot box, despite the tension. The ERE challenged certain government moves, the Centre Union did not have an absolute majority, and the EDA offered parliamentary tolerance without participating in the government. Papandreou soon chose a new appeal to the polls so as not to be dependent on the votes of the Left in a political environment where such a dependency would be used against him.

The Papandreou government resigned on 31 December 1963, and Ioannis Paraskevopoulos led to new elections. On 16 February 1964, the Centre Union won a clear parliamentary majority, and on 18 February, Papandreou returned as Prime Minister. Educational reform expanded free education and strengthened the use of the demotic language, while social measures and income increases fuelled expectations of change.

On 6 March 1964, King Paul died and was succeeded by the 23-year-old Constantine II. There was no separate regency in the period we are narrating. The new king inherited a Constitution that left room for conflict over the control of the executive branch and the armed forces. The political maturity of the institution would be tested almost immediately.

In Cyprus, the constitutional crisis of 1963 evolved into inter-communal violence, population movements, and separate enclaves. In March 1964, the Security Council created the UNFICYP peacekeeping force. The Papandreou government sent a Greek military force to the island and supported Makarios, while threats of Turkish intervention and American pressure turned the crisis international. The numbers of dead and displaced differ by period and community and cannot be merged into a rough tally.

On 15 July 1965, Papandreou left the premiership following the failure of an agreement with the King. Whether this was technically a resignation, a forced dismissal, or the use of royal prerogative is part of a constitutional and historiographical dispute. The term "Apostasy" expresses the Centre Union's perspective on the MPs who supported new governments; the neutral descriptive term is "Iouliana" or the "1965 crisis."

Georgios Athanasiadis-Novas became Prime Minister on 15 July but did not receive a vote of confidence and left on 20 August. Ilias Tsirimokos followed until 17 September and also failed. Stefanos Stefanopoulos then formed a government with MPs who had left the Centre Union and with the support of the ERE, eventually receiving a vote of confidence. Parliamentary arithmetic is a legal process, but active royal intervention and the movement of MPs caused a crisis of representation.

The demonstrations of the summer were massive and frequently clashed with the police. On 21 July, the student Sotiris Petroulas died. The exact circumstances of his death were strongly disputed even then; therefore, we do not present a specific mechanism as a confirmed fact without a commonly accepted forensic conclusion. His death became a symbol of a movement that linked democracy to the demand for the popular mandate to return to the polls.

The economy continued to grow, but political uncertainty deepened. The Court, the government, the ERE, the two wings of the Centre Union, the Left, and officer networks acted with different fears and plans. The explanation cannot be limited to one "bad" protagonist, nor can it consider a dictatorship inevitable. The choices of 1965 and 1966, however, narrowed the margins for parliamentary compromise.

On 22 December 1966, the Stefanopoulos government fell. Ioannis Paraskevopoulos formed a government with the mission to lead the country to elections, following an agreement between Georgios Papandreou and Panagiotis Kanellopoulos. On 31 December, Paraskevopoulos was Prime Minister and Constantine was King. The Parliament and the Constitution of 1952 still formally functioned, but trust in the institutions had been undermined.

The agreement for a caretaker solution did not end the polarisation. The Centre Union remained divided, Andreas Papandreou acquired autonomous political influence, the Right feared an electoral shift, and segments of the army developed their own plans. None of this proves that the coup was preordained. It does show, however, that at the end of 1966, democratic parties, the Crown, and the armed forces no longer agreed on the same rules of political succession.

In the next episode, we will move to 1967. We will see how, before the scheduled elections were held, the colonels dismantled democracy, how the seven-year dictatorship functioned, how the resistance evolved, and how the coup in Cyprus, the Turkish invasion, and the collapse of the junta led to the *Metapolitefsi* of 1974.

Find all episodes at ProjectGreece.gr, along with references, additional material, explanations, sources, and bibliography.

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