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All 370 seats of the Greek Parliament 186 seats needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This article is part of a series on the politics and government of Greece |
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Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on 1 November 1920. [1] They were possibly the most crucial elections in the modern history of Greece, influencing not only the few years afterwards, including the country's defeat by Kemal Atatürk's reformed Turkish army in 1922, but setting the stage for Greece's political landscape for most of the rest of the 20th century. It had been nearly five years since the last election, a period during which all democratic procedures were suspended due to the National Schism, when Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos announced that the elections would take place on 25 October. However, after the unexpected death of King Alexander, who had assumed the throne after the exile of his father, King Constantine I, the elections were postponed until 1 November.
Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, self-identified and historically known as Hellas, is a country located in Southern and Southeast Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2016. Athens is the nation's capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki.
The history of modern Greece covers the history of Greece from the recognition of its autonomy from the Ottoman Empire by the Great Powers in 1828, after the Greek War of Independence, to the present day.
The result was a victory for the United Opposition, which won 251 of the 369 seats.
The United Opposition was a coalition of anti-Venizelist Greek political parties for the elections of 1920.
Parties and coalitions | Votes | % | Seats | ||||||||
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People's Party | – | – | – | ||||||||
Conservative Party | – | – | – | ||||||||
Reform Party | – | – | – | ||||||||
Others | – | – | – | ||||||||
United Opposition | 368,678 | 49.4 | 260 | ||||||||
Liberal Party | 375,803 | 50.3 | 110 | ||||||||
Others | 2,465 | 0.3 | 0 | ||||||||
Total | 746,946 | 100 | 370 | ||||||||
Source: Greek Institute of Constitutional History |
Eleftherios Venizelos regarded a victory for his Liberal Party as all but certain, because of his diplomatic and military successes against the Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless, the final electoral results represented nothing short of a disaster for Venizelos. Not only did the United Opposition achieve an absolute majority of seats in Parliament, but Venizelos himself failed to win a seat. Humiliated and disappointed by the outcome of the election, Venizelos left the country for France, also leaving his Liberal Party without a logical successor or any strong leadership.
The Liberal Party, also the National Progressive Centre Union since 1952, was a major political party in Greece during the early-to-mid 20th century. It was founded in August 1910 by Eleftherios Venizelos and went on to dominate Greek politics for a considerable number of years until its decline following the Second World War. Among its most well-known members, apart from Venizelos, were Alexandros Papanastasiou, Nikolaos Plastiras, Georgios Papandreou and Konstantinos Mitsotakis.
The Ottoman Empire, historically known in Western Europe as the Turkish Empire or simply Turkey, was a state that controlled much of Southeast Europe, Western Asia and North Africa between the 14th and early 20th centuries. It was founded at the end of the 13th century in northwestern Anatolia in the town of Söğüt by the Oghuz Turkish tribal leader Osman I. After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans, the Ottoman beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror.
France, officially the French Republic, is a country whose territory consists of metropolitan France in Western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The metropolitan area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is bordered by Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany to the northeast, Switzerland and Italy to the east, and Andorra and Spain to the south. The overseas territories include French Guiana in South America and several islands in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. The country's 18 integral regions span a combined area of 643,801 square kilometres (248,573 sq mi) and a total population of 67.3 million. France, a sovereign state, is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Other major urban areas include Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lille and Nice.
The reasons of the unexpected defeat of the Liberals included:
Dimitrios Gounaris was the Prime Minister of Greece from 25 February to 10 August 1915 and 26 March 1921 to 3 May 1922. Leader of the People's Party, he was the main right-wing opponent of his contemporary Eleftherios Venizelos.
Constantine I was King of Greece from 1913 to 1917 and from 1920 to 1922. He was commander-in-chief of the Hellenic Army during the unsuccessful Greco-Turkish War of 1897 and led the Greek forces during the successful Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, in which Greece expanded to include Thessaloniki, doubling in area and population. He succeeded to the throne of Greece on 18 March 1913, following his father's assassination.
Eleftherios Kyriakou Venizelos was an eminent Greek leader of the Greek national liberation movement and a charismatic statesman of the early 20th century, remembered for his contribution in the expansion of Greece and promotion of liberal-democratic policies. As leader of the Liberal Party, he was elected several times, in total eight, as Prime Minister of Greece, serving from 1910 to 1920 and from 1928 to 1933. Venizelos had such profound influence on the internal and external affairs of Greece that he is credited with being "the maker of modern Greece", and is still widely known as the "Ethnarch".
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 1950–1952, in the governments of Nikolaos Plastiras and Sofoklis Venizelos and 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.
The following lists events that happened during 1920 in Greece.
This article gives an overview of liberalism in Greece. It is limited to liberal parties. The sign ⇒ denotes another party in that scheme. For inclusion in this scheme it isn't necessary so that parties labeled themselves as a liberal party.
Venizelism was one of the major political movements in Greece from the 1900s until the mid-1970s.
Pavlos Kountouriotis was a Greek rear admiral during the Balkan Wars, regent, and the first President of the Second Hellenic Republic. In total he served four times as head of the Greek State, most times in the history of the seat.
Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on 13 June [O.S. 31 May] 1915. The result was a landslide victory for Eleftherios Venizelos and his Liberal Party, winning 187 of the 316 seats in Parliament. Venizelos claimed that his win was proof that the Greek people approved his pro-Allies policy.
The People's Party was a conservative and pro-monarchist Greek political party founded by Dimitrios Gounaris, the main political rival of Eleftherios Venizelos and his Liberal Party. The party existed from 1920 until 1958.
A referendum on the return of King Constantine I was held in Greece on 22 November 1920. It followed the death of his son, King Alexander. The proposal was approved by 99.0% of voters. The antivenizelist parties had recently won the elections of 1920. However the referendum is considered illegitimate by modern Greek historians.
Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on 19 December [O.S. 6 December] 1915. They were boycotted by Eleftherios Venizelos and his party, the Liberal Party, as unconstitutional, a result of a confrontation with King Constantine I over the country's participation in World War I. Venizelos considered Greece as a close and loyal ally of the United Kingdom and France, while Constantine I, who was affiliated with the German royal family, favored neutrality.
The National Schism was a series of disagreements between King Constantine I and Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos regarding the foreign policy of Greece in the period of 1910–1922 of which the tipping point was whether Greece should enter World War I. Venizelos was in support of the Allies and wanted Greece to join the war on their side, while the pro-German King wanted Greece to remain neutral, which would favor the plans of the Central Powers.
Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on 19 February 1956. The result was a victory for Constantine Karamanlis and his National Radical Union party by securing the electoral vote despite trailing in the popular vote. 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.
Panagis Tsaldaris was a Greek politician and the 48th Prime Minister of Greece. He was a revered conservative politician and leader for many years (1922–1936) of the conservative People's Party in the period before World War II. He was the husband of Lina Tsaldari, a Greek suffragist, member of Parliament, and the Minister for Social Welfare.
Themistoklis Sofoulis or Sophoulis was a prominent centrist Greek politician from Samos Island, who served three times as Prime Minister of Greece, belonging to the centre-left wing of the Liberal Party, which he led for many years.
Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on 16 December 1923. The result was a victory for the Liberal Party, which won 250 of the 398 seats.
Stefanos Skouloudis was a Greek banker, diplomat and the 34th Prime Minister of Greece.