Georgios Papandreou | |
|---|---|
| Γεώργιος Παπανδρέου | |
.jpg) Papandreou in 1968 | |
| Prime Minister of Greece | |
| In office 19 February 1964 – 15 July 1965 | |
| Monarchs | Paul Constantine II |
| Preceded by | Ioannis Paraskevopoulos |
| Succeeded by | Georgios Athanasiadis-Novas |
| In office 8 November 1963 – 30 December 1963 | |
| Monarch | Paul |
| Preceded by | Stylianos Mavromichalis |
| Succeeded by | Ioannis Paraskevopoulos |
| In office 26 April 1944 – 3 January 1945 | |
| Monarch | George II |
| Regent | Archbishop Damaskinos (from December 1944) |
| Preceded by | Sofoklis Venizelos |
| Succeeded by | Nikolaos Plastiras |
| Deputy Prime Minister of Greece | |
| In office 28 August 1950 – 4 July 1951 | |
| Prime Minister | Sofoklis Venizelos |
| Preceded by | himself |
| Succeeded by | Emmanouil Tsouderos |
| In office 15 April 1950 – 21 August 1950 | |
| Prime Minister | Nikolaos Plastiras |
| Preceded by | Panagiotis Kanellopoulos |
| Succeeded by | himself |
| Minister of Education | |
| In office 18 February 1964 – 15 July 1965 | |
| Prime Minister | himself |
| Preceded by | Georgios Kourmoulis |
| Succeeded by | Georgios Athanasiadis-Novas |
| In office 8 November 1963 – 30 December 1963 | |
| Prime Minister | himself |
| Preceded by | Ioannis Sountis |
| Succeeded by | Georgios Kourmoulis |
| In office 1 February 1951 – 4 July 1951 | |
| Prime Minister | Sofoklis Venizelos |
| Preceded by | Nicholas Bakopoulos |
| Succeeded by | Nicholas Bakopoulos |
| In office 16 January 1933 – 6 March 1933 | |
| Prime Minister | Eleftherios Venizelos |
| Preceded by | Dimitrios Chatziskos |
| Succeeded by | Alexandros Mazarakis-Ainian |
| In office 2 January 1930 – 26 May 1932 | |
| Prime Minister | Eleftherios Venizelos |
| Preceded by | Konstantinos Gontikas |
| Succeeded by | Pericles Karapanos |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Georgios Stavropoulos 13 February 1888 |
| Died | 1 November 1968(1968-11-01) (aged 80) |
| Political party |
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| Spouse(s) | Sofia Mineyko Cybele Andrianou |
| Relations | George Papandreou (grandson) Nikos Papandreou (grandson) |
| Children | Andreas Papandreou Georgios G. Papandreou |
| Signature |  |
Georgios Papandreou (Greek:Γεώργιος Παπανδρέου,Geórgios Papandréou; 13 February 1888 – 1 November 1968) was a Greek politician, the founder of the Papandreoupolitical dynasty. He served three terms as theprime minister of Greece (1944–1945, 1963, 1964–1965). He was alsodeputy prime minister from 1950 to 1952, in the governments ofNikolaos Plastiras andSofoklis Venizelos. He served numerous times as a cabinet minister, starting in 1923, in a political career that spanned more than five decades.[3]
After studying law inAthens and political science inBerlin, Papandreou enlisted as a volunteer in theFirst Balkan War. He first run for political office in the1920 national elections and was a principal member of the11 September 1922 Revolution that overthrew KingConstantine I. Thereafter, he became a prominentLiberal politician, surviving an assassination attempt in 1921 and being imprisoned byTheodoros Pangalos's dictatorship in 1925. After having briefly attained ministerial experience at the start of theSecond Republic,Eleftherios Venizelos elevated him to the ministries ofEducation andTransport in 1930 and 1933 respectively, overseeing the construction of over three thousand schools amidst theGreek refugee crisis. He was again arrested and exiled in 1938 by the4th of August Regime, remaining in exile for four years.
Imprisoned byItalianforces inWorld War II during theAxis Occupation of Greece, he agreed to head the Greekgovernment–in–exile in 1944. AsGermanforces evacuated Greece in October 1944, Papandreou became the first post–occupation prime minister, heading aunity government and overseeing the suppression of communistEAM forces in Athens in theDekemvriana. He resigned in early January 1945 and rose to becoming deputy leader of the Liberal Party underSofoklis Venizelos. He would deputise both Venizelos andNikolaos Plastiras as deputy prime minister before the Liberals lost the1952 elections, resulting in the former relinquishing the party leadership to Papandreou. Despite winning the popular vote, the short–livedDemocratic Union failed to win the1956 elections. The merger of the Liberal Party and other parties in 1961 created theCentre Union that Papandreou led inthat year's elections. IncumbentKonstantinos Karamanlis won the election, but Papandreou allegedfraud in the results, proclaiming a "relentless struggle" against the incumbent government.
The Centre Union won a minority vote in the1963 elections and formed a government in the1964 elections. On his return as head of government, he ledeconomic liberalization efforts andwealth redistribution policies amidst theGreek economic miracle, increased mandatory years in education and enforcedfree education on all levels. In foreign policy, he assumed a pro–Enosis stance amidstclashes in Cyprus, and was increasingly advised by his son,Andreas Papandreou.
His relationship with the new King,Constantine II, was deteriorating, and following the refusal ofMinister of National DefencePetros Garoufalias to vacate his position regarding the ASPIDA scandal in thearmy, Papandreou openly clashed with the King and resigned in July 1965. The latter lured in Centre Union members to form unelected coalition governments, resulting inprolonged political instability for the next two years. Papandreou denounced the "Apostates" of the Centre Union and declared a second "struggle", together with his son, Andreas. Before the 1967 elections could commence, a coup d'etat in April 1967 saw the installation of amilitary regime and the arrest of both Papandreous. Georgios was placed under house arrest and died in November 1968.
Papandreou was known as the "Old Man of Democracy" by his supporters. He established a political dynasty, that most prominently included his son Andreas, who would later serve as prime minister from 1981 to 1989 and 1993 to 1996, and grandsonGeorge, who served as prime minister from 2009 to 2011.
Papandreou was bornGeorgios Stavropoulos atKalentzi, in theAchaea region of the northernPeloponnese.[1] He was the son of Father Andreas Stavropoulos, an Orthodoxarchpriest (protopresvyteros). His last name is derived from his father's Christian name and the wordpapas "priest". He studiedlaw inAthens andpolitical science inBerlin. His political philosophy was heavily influenced by Germansocial democracy. As a result, he was adamantly opposed to the monarchy and supported generous social policies, but he was also extremelyanti-communist (and specifically against theKKE's policies in Greece). As a young man, he became involved in politics as a supporter of the Liberal leaderEleftherios Venizelos, who made him governor ofChios after theBalkan Wars. One of his brothers, Nikos, was killed in theBattle of Kilkis-Lachanas.
He married twice. His first wife was Sofia Mineyko, aPolish national, daughter ofZygmunt Mineyko and paternal granddaughter of Stanislaw Mineyko (1802–1857). Their sonAndreas Papandreou was born inChios in 1919. His second wife was the actressCybele Andrianou and their son was named George Papandreou.
Duringthe political crisis surroundingGreece's entry into theFirst World War, Papandreou was one of Venizelos's closest supporters against the pro-German monarch,King Konstantínos I. When Venizelos in 1916 left Athens, Papandreou accompanied him toCrete, and then went toLesbos, where he mobilised anti-monarchist supporters in the islands and rallied support for Venizelos's insurgentpro-Allied government in Thessaloniki.
In the1920 general election, Papandreou unsuccessfully ran as an independent liberal in theLesbos constituency. In 1921 as a lawyer he defendedAlexandros Papanastasiou, during a trial for his critic against King Konstantínos. Because of an article calling on King Konstantínos to abdicate, he was imprisoned by the royalist regime and later he narrowly escaped assassination from royalist extremists in Lesbos.
From January to October 1923, he served asinterior minister in the cabinet ofStylianos Gonatas. In the December1923 elections, he was elected as aVenizelistLiberal Party member of parliament forLésvos, and served as finance minister for just 11 days in June 1925, education minister in 1930–1932 and transport minister in 1933.[4] As minister of education he reformed the Greek school system and built many schools for the children of refugees of theGreco-Turkish War. During the dictatorship ofPangalos, he was again imprisoned.
In 1935, he set up theDemocratic Socialist Party of Greece. The same year, a royalist coup byGeneralGeórgios Kondylis took place for the re-establishment of monarchy and he was placed in internal exile. A lifelong opponent of theGreek monarchy, he was again exiled in 1938 by the Greek royalist dictatorIoannis Metaxas.
Following theAxis occupation of Greece in theSecond World War, he was imprisoned by theItalian authorities. He later fled to theMiddle East and joined the predominantly Venizelist government-in-exile based in theKingdom of Egypt. With British support,King Geórgios II appointed him as prime minister, and under his premiership took place theLebanon conference (May 1944) and later theCaserta Agreement (September 1944), in an attempt to stop the crisis in Greece and the conflicts betweenEAM and non-EAM forces (a prelude of thecivil war) and establish a national unity government.
After the evacuation ofGreece by the Axis powers, he enteredAthens (October 1944) as Prime Minister of theGreek government-in-exile with some units of theGreek Army and the allied British. During the same month, he became prime minister in theGreek Government of National Unity [el], which had succeeded the Greek government-in-exile. He tried to normalise the highly polarised situation between the EAM and non-EAM forces, collaborating mainly withLieutenant-GeneralSir Ronald Scobie, who was, after the Caserta agreement, responsible for all the Allied forces.
Although he resigned in 1945, after theDekemvriana events, he continued to hold high office. From 1946–1952 he served as labour minister, supplies minister, education minister, finance minister and public order minister. In 1950–1952, he was alsodeputy prime minister.
The 1952–1961 period was a very difficult one for Papandreou. The liberal political forces in theKingdom of Greece were gravely weakened by internal disputes and suffered electoral defeat from the conservatives. Papandreou continuously accusedSofoklis Venizelos for these maladies, considering his leadership dour and uninspiring.
In 1961, Papandreou revived Greek liberalism by founding theCentre Union Party, a confederation of old liberal Venizelists, social democrats and dissatisfied conservatives. After theelections of "violence and fraud" of 1961, Papandreou declared a "Relentless Struggle" against the right-wingERE and the "parakrátos" (deep state) of the right.
Finally, his party won theelections of November 1963 and those of 1964, the second with alandslide majority. His progressive policies as premier aroused much opposition in conservative circles, as did the prominent role played by his sonAndreas Papandreou, whose policies were seen as being considerably left of center. Andreas disagreed with his father on many important issues, and developed a network of political organizations, the "Democratic Leagues" (Dimokratikoi Syndesmoi) to lobby for more progressive policies. He also managed to take control of the Center Union's youth organization.
Papandreou had opposed theZürich and London Agreement, which led to the foundation of the Republic ofCyprus. Following clashes between theGreek andTurkish communities, his government sent aGreek army division to the island.
King Constantine II openly opposed Papandreou's government, and there were frequent ultra-rightist plots in the Army, which destabilised the government. Finally, the King engineered a split in the Centre Union, and in July 1965, in a crisis known asIouliana, he dismissed the government following a dispute over control of the Ministry of Defence.
After the April 1967 military coup by theColonels' junta led byGeorge Papadopoulos, Papandreou was arrested. Papandreou died under house arrest in November 1968. His funeral became the occasion for a massive anti-dictatorship demonstration. He is interred at theFirst Cemetery of Athens, alongside his son Andreas.
Papandreou was regarded as one of the bestorators in the Greek political scene and a persistent fighter for Democracy. During the junta and after his death he was often referred to affectionately as"ο Γέρος της Δημοκρατίας" (o Géros tis Dimokratías, the old man of Democracy). Since his grandsonGeorge A. Papandreou entered politics, most Greek writers use Γεώργιος (Geórgios) to refer to the grandfather and the less formal Γιώργος (Giórgos) to refer to the grandson.
A wide range of progressive social reforms were also carried out during Papandreou’s premiership. Improvements in health and welfare were carried out, while general government transfers to households for education services rose by over 55%, and big increases in the enrollment of pupils in both secondary and higher education institutions took place. In addition, consumption per capita rose from 14,000 drachmae to 17,000 drachmae. Income distribution also improved as a result of his party’s income policy, which was geared towards increasing wage and agricultural income.[5]
In 1965, theUniversity of Belgrade awarded him anhonorary doctorate.
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| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of Greece 1944–1945 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of Greece 1963 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of Greece 1964–1965 | Succeeded by |
