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| Politics of Greece |
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Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on 9 September 1951. [1] They resulted in an ambivalent outcome, consisting a narrow and pyrrhic, as proven later, victory for the ruling center-liberal parties of Sophoklis Venizelos and Nikolaos Plastiras.
After the Greek elections of 1950, when the divided centrist parties had a clear majority in the Parliament political instability was the main characteristic of the political life in Greece. The subsequent centre-liberal governments of Sophoklis Venizelos, Nikolaos Plastiras and Georgios Papandreou did not manage to ensure and enforce stability. As a result, Nikolaos Plastiras supported a People's Party government, under the terms that the latter would soon conduct elections.
First party in the elections of 1951 was the just-founded Greek Rally of Alexandros Papagos, which swept the traditionally dominant right-wing People's Party. Nevertheless, the two major centrist-liberal parties, the Liberal Party and the National Progressive Center Union, elected more deputies than the conservatives.
The left-wing EDA, a party believed to have been affiliated with the outlaw during 1950-1974 Communist Party of Greece, made its first appearance in these elections.
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greek Rally | 624,316 | 36.53 | 114 | New | |
| National Progressive Center Union | 401,379 | 23.49 | 74 | +29 | |
| Liberal Party | 325,390 | 19.04 | 57 | +1 | |
| United Democratic Left | 180,640 | 10.57 | 10 | –8 | |
| People's Party | 113,876 | 6.66 | 2 | –60 | |
| Georgios Papandreou Party | 35,810 | 2.10 | 0 | –35 | |
| Agricultural and Labour Party | 21,009 | 1.23 | 1 | New | |
| Socialist Party of Greece | 3,912 | 0.23 | 0 | New | |
| List of Independents | 1,554 | 0.09 | 0 | 0 | |
| Communist Archio-Marxist Party | 53 | 0.00 | 0 | New | |
| Independents | 965 | 0.06 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 1,708,904 | 100.00 | 258 | +8 | |
| Valid votes | 1,708,904 | 99.53 | |||
| Invalid/blank votes | 8,108 | 0.47 | |||
| Total votes | 1,717,012 | 100.00 | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 2,224,246 | 77.20 | |||
| Source: Nohlen & Stöver, Hellenic Parliament | |||||
Since no party or alliance had the absolute majority in the Parliament and Alexandros Papagos refused to participate in a government of national unity, the Liberal Party and the National Progressive Center Union formed a minority government under the leadership of Nikolaos Plastiras, which lasted for about a year, since 1952, when Nikolaos Plastiras submitted his resignation and new parliamentary elections were proclaimed by the King Paul I.
Georgios Papandreou was a Greek politician, the founder of the Papandreou political dynasty. He served three terms as prime minister of Greece. He was also deputy prime minister from 1950 to 1952, in the governments of Nikolaos Plastiras and Sofoklis Venizelos. He served numerous times as a cabinet minister, starting in 1923, in a political career that spanned more than five decades.
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The National Progressive Centre Union was a Greek Venizelist political party. It was founded in 1950 by Nikolaos Plastiras, and formed a government with other Centrist parties after the 1950 legislative election. It later formed another coalition government after the resignation of Sofoklis Venizelos as Prime Minister, and another one in 1951 with Venizelos. After Plastiras's death in 1953, the party continued to exist, but was subsumed into the Centre Union in 1961.
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