Konstantinos Karamanlis
Constantine [ os] Karamanlis (Greek Κωνσταντίνος Καραμανλής, born March 8, 1907 in Küpköy, today Proti, † 23 April 1998 in Athens ) was a Greek lawyer and politician.
Youth and beginning of career
Constantine Karamanlis was born in a small village in eastern Macedonia. 1913-1924 he attended the school from 1925 to 1929 he studied in Athens law. In 1932 he started after military service his career as a lawyer. In 1935, he moved for the first time as a deputy of the Popular Party for the constituency of Serres in the parliament. In 1936, he refused to cooperate with the Metaxas regime after his re-election to Parliament. He practiced as a lawyer again, and lived from 1941 to 1944 in Athens. After a short flight to the Middle East Karamanlis returned to Athens. In 1946 he was again elected to the parliament.
Karamanlis was from November 1946 to February 1947 under the Prime Minister Konstantinos Tsaldaris and Dimitrios Maximos labor minister from May to October 1948 under Themistocles Sophoulis Transport Minister, from November 1948 to January 1950 under Themistocles Sophoulis and Alexandros Diomidis Minister of Social Affairs. After the re-election to Parliament in March 1950, he was from September to November 1950 Defense under Prime Minister Venizelos Sophoklis. As an opposition politician, he was looking for a way with a new party in the country to produce stability. From November 1952 to October 1955 he was Minister of Public Works.
Kostas Karamanlis, Greek Prime Minister from 2004-2009, is his nephew.
Prime Minister 1955-1963
After the death of the Prime Minister Alexandros Papagos on October 5, 1955 Karamanlis was commissioned by King Paul I with the formation of a new government. In 1955 he founded the conservative Ethniki Enosis Rizospastiki (Greek Eθνίκη Ριζοσπαστική Ένωσις, EUA, National Radical Union) each won an absolute majority in the elections in 1956, 1958 and 1961.
Karamanlis operation at this time ahead with the expansion of the Greek infrastructure and brought it internationally conclusion of an Association Agreement with the European Economic Community. The economy quickly recovered and the national income grew by an average of 6.25% per year. His tenure as Prime Minister, the affair dropped the murder of the pacifist Grigoris Lambrakis aligned MPs whose reconnaissance showed the involvement of the police and judiciary with right-wing royalist circles.
Due to differences with King Paul in terms of the impact on the military Karamanlis resigned in 1963. His party lost the election under his leadership in 1963, Karamanlis went into exile in Paris.
Prime Minister 1974-1980
As part of the Cyprus crisis of 1974, the military rule collapsed. Under pressure from the Western community Gizikis President Karamanlis called back from exile in Paris, where he had gone after the election defeat in 1964. Karamanlis was flown with an aircraft of the French President Valéry Giscard d' Estaing, greeted by a cheering population and yet sworn in on the night of July 24, 1974 as Prime Minister. He formed a government of national unity. In the fall of 1974, he founded the liberal-conservative New Democracy party. Karamanlis and his government ensured within one year of free elections, a new constitution and the arrest of the junta officers.
He remained Prime Minister after the elections in 1974 and 1977. During his tenure from 1974 to 1980 he managed the transition from military dictatorship to democracy, " political change " (Greek μεταπολίτευση " Metapolitefsi " ), which brought him international recognition. The ban on the Communist Party, he subsided after about 30 years of cancel. Still in 1974, he had a referendum to implement for the abolition of the monarchy, which confirmed the proclaimed in the military dictatorship Republic. It came back to economic prosperity in his tenure, but also to a diplomatic opening towards the Arab and Eastern European countries. 1979 decided that the European Economic Community, the entry of Greece for the year 1981, which ' was based on the European policy Karamanlis. 1980 Karamanlis resigned as Prime Minister and party leader.
President 1980-1985 and 1990-1995
1980 Karamanlis was elected president. The first term, he ended by his resignation before the regular appointment after Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou denied him the support of PASOK for re-election. In 1985 he moved initially from politics, but ran to pressure from the public again in 1990 as president and was elected with the support of New Democracy. His second term ended in 1995.