THE Konstantinos Karamanlis He succeeded Alexander Papagos in the prime minister after his last death on October 4, 1955. By order of King Paul on October 5, Karamanlis formed a new government, which was sworn in the following day. The facts in Cyprus And in bilateral Greek -Turkish relations, so rapidly evolving that Papagos’ immediate succession was considered necessary before the procedures for the election of a new leader within his party were moved.
Karamanlis was one of the few prominent ministers of the Greek alarm, who had not clashed with the palaces in the past. He was a young and successful minister, who kept distances from the legacy of national division. Represented a new generation of policies, which was mainly attracted to USA and the North Atlantic Alliance despite the United Kingdom.
The draft of the new electoral law has remained known as the “three -phase electoral system”.
Almost from the beginning of taking up his duties, Karamanlis made his intentions to hold new elections in the first months of 1956, having previously revised the electoral system. The plan of the new electoral law was submitted to Parliament on November 25, 1955, called “majority with a limited representation of the minority”. In historiography it is made known as’three -phase electoral system“
In short, the new system envisaged the majority system in the regions that elected up to three MPs, the majority with a limited representation of the second party in the regions who were elected by four to ten MPs and the analogue system in the other regions. The new electoral system was approved by the government majority on December 19, and two weeks later Karamanlis announced his desire to hold elections on February 19, 1956. At the same time, he announced his party’s founding. National Radical Union (ERE).
The ERE leadership has noted at every opportunity to overcome the passions of division.
The adoption of the new electoral law has sparked a major and minor opposition. The tense climate in parliamentary discussions was also transferred to the election campaign. The ERE were mostly members of MPs and politicians, who belonged to the Greek Alarm of Papagos. In his ranks, however, remarkable executives of the center of the center were joined, such as Evangelos Averoffthe Konstantinos Tsatsosthe August Theologitethe Stelios Kotiadis etc., which played an important role in shaping the character of the Karamanlis party. The party’s leadership proclaimed at every opportunity to overcome the passions of division, which had plagued Greek society in previous decades.
On the other hand, many of the opposition parties, which came mainly from the center and the Left, formed on January 17, 1956, a wide political coalition under the name Democratic Union (DE). Head of the new coalition was put in place George Papandreou. Independently they chose to claim their integration into the House of Progressive Spyrou Marquezine and his popular social party Stefanou Stefanopoulos.
In the elections, ERE garnered 47.38% of the votes, while the Board of Directors. 48.15%.
In the elections of February 19, 1956, ERE garnered 47.38% of the vote, while the DE 48.15%. However, the party of Konstantinos Karamanlis received a comfortable parliamentary majority, occupying 165 seats in the new Parliament, while the coalition led by Papandreou was just 132, the result of the new electoral system implemented in these elections. ERE’s dominance gave Karamanlis the necessary confidence in implementing his political program. The new government was formed on February 29, including both old right -wing politicians and many new faces.
Column: Myrto Katsigera, Vassilis Minakakis, Antigoni-Despina Poumenidou, Athanasios Syroplakis
