C. Caramanlis and his “Radical National Union” (ERE), in government since February 1956, renewed their electoral success also in May 1958 and October 1961. In these last elections, however, they found themselves facing a ‘ opposition reorganized in programs and leaders, determined to oppose the “Caramanlis regime”; it was headed by Greece Papandreu, who in the previous February had managed to gather in the “Union of the center” the liberal, agrarian, progressive, agrarian-labor, populist parties, the Democratic Center and the Democratic Union (EDA). After the elections took place, the Caramanlis-Papandreu controversy over electoral fraud and the authoritarian system of government developed bitterly, despite the effort of detente by the Prime Minister through the abolition of the state of emergency that had lasted since 1946, the expansion of freedom of the press and the closure of the detention camp for those guilty of political crimes; it reached more excited tones after the assassination on May 29, 1963 in Thessaloniki, during a pacifist demonstration, of the EDA deputy Greece Lambrakis. King Paul, to ease the tension, decided to temporarily shelve Caramanlis, who resigned (June 11). In the subsequent elections (November 3), Papandreu obtained 42% of the votes, but was unable to form a government majority; he then resorted to new elections (February 16, 1964) and won an absolute majority (174 seats). it reached more excited tones after the assassination on May 29, 1963 in Thessaloniki, during a pacifist demonstration, of the EDA deputy Greece Lambrakis. King Paul, to ease the tension, decided to temporarily shelve Caramanlis, who resigned (June 11). In the subsequent elections (November 3), Papandreu obtained 42% of the votes, but was unable to form a government majority; he then resorted to new elections (February 16, 1964) and won an absolute majority (174 seats). it reached more excited tones after the assassination on May 29, 1963 in Thessaloniki, during a pacifist demonstration, of the EDA deputy Greece Lambrakis. King Paul, to ease the tension, decided to temporarily shelve Caramanlis, who resigned (June 11). In the subsequent elections (November 3), Papandreu obtained 42% of the votes, but was unable to form a government majority; he then resorted to new elections (February 16, 1964) and won an absolute majority (174 seats). but he could not form a government majority; he then resorted to new elections (February 16, 1964) and won an absolute majority (174 seats). but he could not form a government majority; he then resorted to new elections (February 16, 1964) and won an absolute majority (174 seats).
Shortly after, on March 6, Paul I died. His young son Constantine XIII immediately showed he did not like Papandreu’s governmental approach, “liberal” in internal politics, that is, aimed at demobilizing the system of conservative interests that Papagos governments and Caramanlis had constituted with the solicitation of Queen Federica at court and with the support of senior military cadres, and moderately “revisionist” in foreign policy. Constantine’s distrust turned into open hostility as soon as Papandreu involved royal prerogatives in his reformist commitment, reviving the old Greek polemic on the monarchy. Occasions for the clash were, on the one hand, the dismissal of the defense minister Garufalias and the cancellation of the decree with which he had added the title “royal” to the Greek army, and on the other the discovery of a plot by republican officers (the so-called “Aspida affair”), with the participation of the Prime Minister’s son, Andrea, to overthrow the monarchy and get Greece out of the Atlantic pact. The king demanded (July 15, 1965) the resignation of Papandreu, but he appealed to public opinion, claiming his right as head of the absolute majority party to reconstitute the government and demanding, in a subordinate line, a new electoral consultation. The sovereign then tried by all means of pressure to break the parliamentary majority of the Union of the center, succeeding on 24 September, after two unsuccessful attempts entrusted to Novas (5 August) and Tsirimokos (29 August), thanks to the candidacy of Stephanopulos, who detached about forty deputies from Papandreu. On December 20, 1966, with the fall of the Stephanopulos cabinet due to the withdrawal of support initially granted by the ERE, Papandreu’s hopes re-emerged: in fact, Constantine could find no other solution than the formation of a business government, presided over from Canellopulos and in charge of organizing new elections for May 28, 1967. But these elections did not take place because on April 21 a coup d’etat brought to power a group of soldiers led by Greece Papadopulos.
The military dictatorship lasted a little over seven years, until July 1974. An attempt to overthrow it, made by King Constantine on December 13 of the same 1967, failed and cost the sovereign first exile and then, on June 1, 1973, the official dethronement with the proclamation of the republic. The clandestine opposition to the regime gradually found its political and organizational expressions in a “Patriotic Front”, in a “Democratic Defense”, in a “Panhellenic Liberation Front” promoted by A. Papandreu (his father Giorgio died on the 1st November 1968); it made a gesture of revolt on the initiative of a sector of the navy in May 1973, and starting from 1972 it gradually came into the open with demonstrations and protests, especially from the student world. One of these manifestations, more demanding and harshly repressed, which the Athens Polytechnic took to the theater on November 14-16 1973, it was not without influence on the internal crisis that on the 25th of the same month led to the dismissal of Papadopulos and his replacement by Ghizikis. The decisive blow to the military regime came from his disastrous adventure in Cyprus on July 15, 1974 to overthrow President Makarios and break the balance between Greeks and Turks on the island in his favor. On July 24, the military transferred government powers to Caramanlis, recalled from Paris where he had lived in exile since 1967. The former head of the ERE quickly restored the essential democratic structures of the state and organized the first elections for November 17. The new party he founded, “New Democracy”, secured 54.5% of the votes and, by virtue of the electoral law it had enacted, 214 of the 300 seats in the unicameral parliament, while the “Union of the center-new forces” of Mavros and Panagulis obtained 20.4% of the votes and 64 seats; the “Panhellenic Socialist Movement” (PASOK) of Andrea Papandreu (15.6%) and the “Union of the Left”, made up of the old EDA and the communists of Ilia Illiu, reached a reduced representation. The results of these elections were partly corrected, creating a greater balance of consensus among the main political formations, since the local elections of March 1975. Meanwhile (February 24, 1975), an attempt by a group of military and civilians to restore the regime deposed strengthened the government’s commitment to prosecute those responsible for the dictatorship.
