 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Venizelism" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(August 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| This article is part ofa series on |
| Politics of Greece |
|---|
 |
|
Venizelism (Greek:Βενιζελισμός) was one of the major political movements inGreece beginning from the 1910s. The movement first formed underEleftherios Venizelos in the 1910s and saw a resurgence of support in the 1960s whenGeorgios Papandreou united a coalition of old Venizelists and nationalist politicians.
The movement was characterized by the beliefs ofEleftherios Venizelos and the ideas of Greekirredentism supporting theMegali Idea. It had a Francophile stance as the ideas of theFrench Revolution and the idea of one state which should have all the lands predominantly inhabited by a single ethnicity. InWWI, the Venizelists wished to join the Entente, mainly due to the entrance of theOttoman Empire andBulgaria, which was one of the highest chances to gain all lands Greeks claim and thus fulfilling theMegali idea. Despite popular misconceptions, Venizelism is a movement that sides with monarchy, and it calls for a ruling class in which the urban class can rise to the ranks by merit. Additionally, the king should originate from the same country that he is ruling, thus not having loyalties to foreign interests. Venizelism called for early and more moderate capitalistic economic policies such as open markets, but the government should approve those markets. The movement had its strongest support in Crete, Thrace, Epirus, the North Aegean islands, and Macedonia.
Named afterEleftherios Venizelos, the key characteristics of Venizelism are:
In the contemporary sense the ideology incorporatesnational liberalism,civic nationalism,economic liberalism,liberal democracy,pro-Europeanism,republicanism,secularism,centrism,radical centrism and generally moves from centre-right to social democracy.
Venizelos' liberal party ruled Greece from 1910 until 1916. That year, determined to enterWorld War I on the Entente side, Venizelosrebelled against the king and formed aProvisional Government of National Defence in Thessaloniki. Venizelos regained full control of the country in 1917 and ruled until losing the 1920 elections. The strongest support for Venizelism came in the "New Greece" gained after theBalkan Wars of 1912–1913, consisting of Crete, Thrace, Epirus, the North Aegean islands, and Macedonia.[2] By contrast, people in "Old Greece" tended to be more much royalist. The fact that in 1916 KingConstantine I had allowed the Bulgarians to occupy parts of Macedonia and had been willing to contemplate giving up all of recently gained "New Greece" in the north to the Bulgarians to weaken the Venizelist movement cemented the identification of people in northern Greece with Venizelism.[3]Greek refugees from Turkey also tended to be firmly Venizelist,[4] at least until the 1930s and the signing of the Greco-Turkish friendship agreement by Venizelos (1930).[5]
Voters started to favour a balance between Venizelos and Constantine I. This crisis period for Venizelos occurred when Greece experienced a lagging economy, growing political corruption, profiteering by the few, and eight continuous years of mobilization.[6]
After a crisis period (including two short-lived pro-Venizelist military governments afterNikolaos Plastiras 1922 revolution) the liberals returned to power from 1928 until 1932. VenizelistsSophoklis Venizelos andGeorgios Papandreou formed the core of theGreek government in exile during theAxis Occupation of Greece (1941–1944), and held power a number of times in the 1950s.
Georgios Papandreou created theCentre Union party in 1961, as a coalition of old Venizelists and progressive politicians. In 1963 the party was elected and held power until 1965, when its right wing broke ranks in the events known as theApostasia. The currentUnion of Centrists claims to be the ideological continuation of the old party Centre Union.
After the1967–1974 Junta, Venizelists formed theCentre Union – New Forces party, which then evolved into theUnion of the Democratic Centre (Greek:ΕΔΗΚ). While the Venizelist legacy was still popular, election results were disappointing as the abolition of the monarchy, the dilution of support for Greek nationalism after the seven years of the junta and the 1974Turkish invasion of Cyprus, andKaramanlis' move towards the political centre had blurred the differences between the liberals and their former conservative opponents, while the socialistPASOK party was gaining support at the left side of the spectrum.
Most members of theCentre Union – New Forces party with their leaderGeorgios Mavros were absorbed by PASOK.
Although the image of Venizelos is still very popular in Greece today, Venizelism is no longer a significant force in Greek politics. Venizelos' prestige and his ideology's connotations of republicanism and progressive reforms meant that most mainstream political forces claimed his political heritage. There are few explicitly "Venizelist" movements today in Greece. In the 2004 elections for theEuropean Parliament, the leading Venizelist party was theUnion of Centrists, gaining only 0.54% of the Greek popular vote. An attempted revival of the original Liberal Party,under the same name, was founded in the 1980s by Venizelos' grandson,Nikitas Venizelos. The party was dissolved in 2012.
There were also various politicians of different political orientation during the 1910s (monarchists, conservatives, part of the clergy, but also socialists/communists of the newly foundedSEKE) who were against Venizelos' policies. Some points of disagreement included the Venizelos' extreme pro-Entente stance during the World War I and theNational Schism (which led to the division of the country between a Venizelist and a royalist government), his policy about theMegali idea and its results (regarding the relations withTurkey and the Greeks who were still under Ottoman sovereignty) and later theTreaty of Lausanne and thepopulation exchange.
Antivenizelism also sided with the religious minorities in Greece (Muslim, Jewish, etc.), being in general of conservative political orientation.[7] Another common point of the anti-Venizelists was a criticism about the country's social and economic transformation/modernization, such as critics for political/economic mismanagement.
