Today, 26 years ago, on April 23, 1998, Konstantinos Karamanlis passed awayfounder of her party New Republicwho served as Prime Minister for two periods (1955-1963 and 1974-1980) and President of the Republic twice (1980-1985, 1990-1995).
Konstantinos Karamanlis was born on March 8, 1907 in Kiupkioi (today’s Proti Serron), a town near Serreswhich then belonged to the Ottoman Empire.
*Read here: ND Congress: The ideological identity by Konstantinos Karamanlis – In May 1979 in Halkidiki, the principles of the party were approved
His father, George, a public teacher and farmer, had been persecuted for his national activity, both by the Turkish and later by the Bulgarian occupation authorities.
He studied at the primary school of Protis Serres, then at the secondary school of Nea Zichni, a town in the region, and then (1920) at the Serres High School.
In 1923, he moved to Athens. He initially attended the Megareos High School to graduate from the 8th Athens High School (in Kypseli).
He studied at the Law School of the University of Athens (1925-1929) from where he received his law degree on December 13, 1929.
In 1930, he served four months of his military service as the protector of a large family.
He then worked as a lawyer in Serres, until he was first elected to parliament in 1935, with the anti-Venezuelan People’s Party. He was re-elected Member of Parliament in 1936, the last election before World War II.
With the outbreak of the Greco-Italian war, he presented himself to enlist in Sidirokastro, but was deemed unable to serve due to hearing loss.
During the German Occupation, he exclusively practiced law. He returned to active politics in 1946, when he took part in the March 31 elections as a candidate of the People’s Party in Serres and was elected as the first member of parliament.
His name became known throughout Greece from his tenure as Minister of Public Works in the Papagou government (1952-1955).
His appeal to public opinion led to his elevation to the prime ministership, after the death of Alexandros Papagos.
The initiative of King Pavlos to entrust him with the formation of the government, on October 5, 1955, surprised everyone, since the vice-presidents of the Papagou government, Stefanos Stephanopoulos and Panagiotis Kanellopoulos, were dominant for the succession.
Karamanlis subsequently founded a new party, the National Radical Union (ERE) and went to the polls in February 1956.
He won them, even though his party came second in votes, thanks to the “three-phase” electoral system.
Winning this and two more elections – in 1958 and 1961 – kept him in power for eight years (1955-1963), an achievement unprecedented in the country’s political history.
Karamanlis’ primary concern was the planning and implementation of a program of rapid economic development, in a country that was still experiencing the consequences of the devastating civil war
The upward course of the economy gave him the possibility to turn, over time, to the strengthening of education, culture and sports, with the institution of PRO-PO (1959).
Yet, increased social sector funding and took institutional measures of a social nature, with the leading event of establishment of the OGA (1961).
But, despite his efforts, modernization in the political field moved at slow speeds, due to the civil war syndromes, which remained strong in the Greek Right.
The international environment was negative for the exercise of a multidimensional foreign policy, due to the Cold War and the country’s attachment to the US tank.
Thus, it was natural for Constantinos Karamanlis to look for grounds for securing Greece’s security and territorial integrity within NATO.
In 1959 he signed the Zurich-London Agreements, which ended British rule over Cyprus and established an independent Cypriot state, with Greece, Turkey and Great Britain as guarantor forces with the right of military intervention. He received severe criticism for these agreements, which established Turkey as an equal partner on the mega-island.
The key point in his foreign policy can be found in effort for the integration of Greece into the European Economic Community.
Konstantinos Karamanlis believed that the EEC was not “just an economic consortium, but an entity with a wider political mission and importance”. After two years of arduous negotiations, Greece would be admitted to the original Group of Six, as the first associate member, on July 9, 1961.
The first eight-year government of Konstantinos Karamanlis was unexpectedly interrupted, with his resignation in June 1963, following a disagreement with King Pavlos, which marked his break with the Palace.
The leader of the official opposition and president of the “Center Union” George Papandreouhad declared the unyielding struggle, accusing Karamanlis of having won the 1961 elections with violence and fraud, while the assassination of Lambrakis by parastatals in Thessaloniki had cast a heavy shadow over the country.
“Who finally rules this place”, Karamanlis had said.
In the elections of November 3, 1963, he led the ERE, but under the weight of the opposition’s complaints, he was defeated by the “Center Union” of George Papandreou.
At that time, Karamanlis resigned from the leadership of ERE and secretly left for Paris under the pseudonym “Triantafyllidis”, where he remained private for 11 years until the Postcolonial period.
On July 24, 1974, Konstantinos Karamanlis triumphantly returned to Greece, after the collapse of the dictatorship under the weight of the coup in Cyprus and the Turkish invasion of the Greek island, at the head of the “National Unity” government.
He legalized the KKE after 26 years of illegality, while he proceeded with the withdrawal of Greece from the military arm of NATO as a reaction to the Alliance’s refusal to oppose the Turkish advance in Cyprus (Attila 2) and replaced the Juntic leadership of the Armed Forces.
In the first free elections (November 17, 1974), Karamanlis prevailed with 54.2%.
His victory in the next election, in November 1977, allowed him to remain in power uninterrupted for six years, as head of New Democracy, a newly formed formationwhich is included in the center-right space.
The holding of a referendum, on December 8, 1974, ended the long conflict over the state, with the definitive establishment of the de-reigned democracy.
Konstantinos Karamanlis: 60 years in the political spotlight
Konstantinos Karamanlis left active politics in 1980, after the signing of the accession treaty of Greece to the EEC.
He was succeeded as prime minister by George Rallis.
On May 5, 1980, he was elected President of the Republic, at a time when Andreas Papandreou’s PASOK was on the verge of power.
In 1985, Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou broke his promise to Karamanlis for a second term and nominated the Areopagite Christos Sargetakis as President of the Republic, with Karamanlis leaving embittered.
However, he was re-elected to the highest office of the country in the five years 1990-1995, when he left politics for good.
He had now completed 60 years in the political spotlight. Specifically, 8 years as a minister, 14 as prime minister and 10 as President of the Hellenic Republic.
Konstantinos Karamanlis passed away at the age of 91.
