 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
All 300 seats in the Hellenic Parliament 151 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on 16 February 1964. [1] They resulted in a clear victory for Georgios Papandreou and his Center Union (EK). Papandreou subsequently formed the 37th government since the end of World War II. [2]
The government led by Panagiotis Kanellopoulos of the National Radical Union (ERE) resigned on 25 September 1963, after which Papandreou formed an interim government on 28 September. As no party had a majority in the Hellenic Parliament, Papandreou's government initiated preparations for elections on 3 November. [2] Although the Center Union emerged as the largest party, which allowed Papandreou to form a new government, it also soon resigned. [2] King Paul accepted Papandreou's resignation on 31 December 1963, and Ioannis Paraskevopoulos formed an interim government to serve until the 1964 elections. [2]
The ERE had been weakened prior to the elections when Konstantinos Karamanlis abandoned politics and exiled himself in Paris. The new ERE leader, Panagiotis Kanellopoulos, formed an alliance with the Progressive Party of Spyros Markezinis.
One of the main messages carried by Papandreou was the goal of establishing a "real democracy". On several occasions Papandreou accused Kanellopoulos of copying his political promises, while also arguing that these promises were not consistent with the policies carried out by ERE when they were in power. [3]
A big part of the political discourse between ERE and the Centre Union was in regard to the relations each party had with the left. ERE claimed that Papandreou was supported by EDA, while the Centre Union supporting newspapers accused a number of ERE politicians of being former members of EAM. [4]
On 13 February, during a campaign speech in Athens, Kanellopoulos stated "Mr Papandreou's Democracy is based on the votes of those who seek to overturn freedom... ... Mr Papandreou is not an active comrade of EDA, but he has allowed EDA to consider him their comrade", while also stating that there were only two worlds, democracy and totalitarianism. [5]
In a campaign speech in front of what the press called an "endless crowd of people", Papandreou stated "Democracy has won. Long live Democracy... this election isn't just about a choice between two parties. It's about a choice between two worlds. The world of decay and the world of regeneration The ERE government lead us to a right wing totalitarianism. It wasn't a democracy, it was a corrupted, party based, totalitarian police state. There was only a democracy "facade"... we fought... and democracy was restored in its ancient birthplace." [6]
The EDA claimed that during Papandreou's brief time as prime minister, he kept the "right wing establishment" intact. The EDA's proposals included the legalization of the Communist Party of Greece, the release of political prisoners and the official recognition of the Greek resistance. [7]
These elections marked the first time Andreas Papandreou stood as a candidate, amassing the largest number of votes and taking the position of Minister to the First Ministry of State.
 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
| Centre Union | 2,424,477 | 52.72 | 171 | +33 | |
| National Radical Union-Progressive Party | 1,621,546 | 35.26 | 107 | –27 | |
| United Democratic Left | 542,865 | 11.80 | 22 | –6 | |
| List of Independents | 9,951 | 0.22 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 4,598,839 | 100.00 | 300 | 0 | |
| Valid votes | 4,598,839 | 99.39 | |||
| Invalid/blank votes | 28,151 | 0.61 | |||
| Total votes | 4,626,990 | 100.00 | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 5,662,965 | 81.71 | |||
| Source: Nohlen & Stöver | |||||
After the results were announced, Papandreou stated "the election results have vindicated our ambitions" while Kanellopoulos conceded, stating "The Greek people have assigned ERE with the role of the opposition, their will is venerable". [8] Shortly after the elections, Papandreou formed his first solid government, which would last till 1965. However, in 1965 the apostasia crisis, a confrontation between Papandreou and King Constantine II, caused the government to fall. It was replaced by a series of weak governments, comprising centrist defectors and supported by the National Radical Union and Constantine. This eventually led to a military dictatorship starting in 1967, which exploited the endless political unrest.
Constantine II was the last king of Greece, reigning from 6 March 1964 until the abolition of the Greek monarchy on 1 June 1973.
Konstantinos G. Karamanlis was a Greek politician who was the four-time Prime Minister of Greece and two-term president of the Third Hellenic Republic. A towering figure of Greek politics, his political career spanned portions of seven decades, covering much of the latter half of the 20th century.
Andreas Georgiou Papandreou was a Greek economist, politician, and a dominant figure in Greek politics, known for founding the political party The Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), which he led from 1974 to 1996. He served three terms as the 3rd and 8th prime minister in the Third Hellenic Republic. His father, Georgios Papandreou, and his son, George Papandreou, have served as prime ministers of Greece.
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.
Konstantinos Mitsotakis was a Greek politician who was Prime Minister of Greece from 1990 to 1993. He graduated in law and economics from the University of Athens. His son, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, was elected as the Prime Minister of Greece following the 2019 Greek legislative election.
Georgios Ioannou Rallis, anglicised to George Rallis, was a Greek conservative politician and Prime Minister of Greece from 1980 to 1981.
This article gives an overview of liberalism in Greece. Liberal parties in Greece are largely committed to liberalism, republicanism and democracy. It is limited to liberal parties.
Spyridon "Spyros" Markezinis was a Greek politician, longtime member of the Hellenic Parliament, and briefly the Prime Minister of Greece during the aborted attempt at metapolitefsi (democratization) of the Greek military regime in 1973.
Ioannis Alevras, sometimes spelled Yannis Alevras, was a Greek Panhellenic Socialist Movement politician and Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament, who served as acting President of Greece in March 1985.
Venizelism was one of the major political movements in Greece beginning from the 1910s. The movement first formed under Eleftherios Venizelos in the 1910s and saw a resurgence of support in the 1960s when Georgios Papandreou united a coalition of old Venizelists and nationalist politicians.
The Centre Union was a major centrist political party in Greece, created in 1961 by Georgios Papandreou.
Sofoklis Venizelos was a Greek politician who served three times as Prime Minister of Greece: in 1944, 1950 and 1950–1951.
Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on Sunday, 18 October 1981. PASOK, led by Andreas Papandreou, faced New Democracy, led by Georgios Rallis. Papandreou achieved a landslide and PASOK formed the first socialist government in the history of Greece.
The National Radical Union was a Greek political party formed in 1956 by Konstantinos Karamanlis, mostly out of the Greek Rally party.
The terms Apostasia or Iouliana or the Royal Coup are used to describe the political crisis in Greece centered on the resignation, on 15 July 1965, of Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou and subsequent appointment, by King Constantine II, of successive prime ministers from Papandreou's own party, the Centre Union, to replace him. Defectors from the Centre Union were branded by Papandreou's sympathizers as Apostates ("renegades"). The Apostasia heralded a prolonged period of political instability, which weakened the fragile post-civil war order, and ultimately led to the establishment of the military regime in April 1967.
Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on 19 February 1956. The result was a victory for Konstantinos Karamanlis and his National Radical Union (ERE) by securing the electoral vote despite trailing in the popular vote, due to gerrymandering employed by ERE. It was the first general election in Greece in which women had the right to vote although women had first voted in a by-election in Thessaloniki Prefecture in 1953 in which the first female MP was elected.
Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on 3 November 1963. They resulted in a narrow victory for the Center Union of Georgios Papandreou after three consecutive victories of Konstantinos Karamanlis and his National Radical Union and after 11 years, during which the conservative parties ruled Greece.
Panagiotis Kanellopoulos or Panayotis Kanellopoulos was a Greek writer, politician and Prime Minister of Greece. He was the Prime Minister of Greece deposed by the Greek military junta of 1967–1974.
The Deputy Prime Minister of Greece is the second senior-most member of the Greek Cabinet. Despite the English translation of the title, he does not actually deputize for the Prime Minister, rather it is a mostly honorific post for senior ministers, and is usually combined with another senior government portfolio or a coordinating role over several ministries. The post is not permanent, rather it is created on an ad hoc basis, usually for the leaders of junior parties in coalition cabinets, and may be held by more than one person at once.
Pafsanias Katsotas was a Hellenic Army general and politician.
| Parliamentary elections |
|
|---|---|
| Head of state elections | |
| Local elections | |
| European elections | |
| Referendums | |
| |
