Athens News Agency: News in English, 07-03-20

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Event marks 100th anniversary of birth of late statesman Constantine Karamanlis

[01] Event marks 100th anniversary of birth of late statesman Constantine Karamanlis

The event will be opened by Foundation president, former foreign minister and long-time Karamanlis associate Petros Molyviatis, as well as by Karamanlis' brother, Foundation vice-president Achilleas Karamanlis.

Constantine Karamanlis, founder of the ruling New Democracy party who served served as prime minister in the 1950s, early 1960s and 1970s until 1980, as well as president of the republic on two occasions, was born on March 8, 1907 in the village of Proti, modern-day Serres prefecture. He studied law at the University of Athens, after which he worked briefly as an attorney in the town of Serres upon completion of his military service.

At the age of 28 (1935), he was elected to parliament for the first time as an MP for Serres with the People's Party, and was elected again to parliament in 1946 in the first post-war elections.

In the Greek Rally party, he served as minister of public works (1948), leaving his seal on Greece chiefly for the new highway planned by his ministry as well as his hand-on efforts to upgrade the area around the Athens Acropolis.

In 1955, after the death of prime minister Alexandros Papagos, Karamanlis was nominated for the vacant premier's seat. He dissolved the Greek Rally party and established ERE (National Radical Union), winning consecutive elections in 1956, 1958 and 1961.

His first eight years in office were characterised by reforms, large-scale infrastructure projects and attempts to modernise the Greek economy, which achieved an unprecedented growth rate by regional standards.

In 1963, Karamanlis strenuously disagreed over policy with the palace and resigned from the premiership. Following ERE's defeat in the general elections that year, he left for Paris, where he remained in self-exile throughout the entire military junta (1967-74), returning to Greece in July 1974 after the collapse of the junta to assume the country's reins during a particularly perilous time. His leadership is greatly credited with the full restoration of parliamentary democracy in the country and a return to normalcy.

Karamanlis arrived triumphantly in Athens on July 24, 1974, on an airplane provided by then French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, and formed a national unity government. Among his first acts was the legalisation of the outlawed Communist Party of Greece (KKE). Later that year he founded the New Democracy party and was elected prime minister with an overwhelming majority of 54.3 percent of the vote. He was re-elected in the 1977 elections, while he had already laid the foundations for Greece's accession to the European Economic Community (EEC, now the European Union-EU).

In May 1980 he was elected president of the republic by parliament, resigning in 1985, and was elected by MPs again to the post in 1990.

Karamanlis retired in 1995, at the age of 88, having served 60 years in public life. He died on April 23, 1998, at the age of 91.

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