Biography of George Papandreou
Greek liberal politician who was three times prime minister of his country.
George
Papandreou was born in Kalentzi (Achaia) on 13/02/1888 and died on 31/10/1968 in
Athens.
Papandreou
studied at the University of Athens (L.L.D., 1911) and in Germany. He began his
political career in 1915, served as governor of the Aegean Islands (1917–20),
and was minister of education (1929–33) in the liberal antimonarchist
government of Eleuthérios Venizelos.
He broke away from the left wing of the Liberal Party and in 1935 founded the
Democratic Socialist Party. During the dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas, he was
in exile, and he was imprisoned by the Germans in 1942–44 during World War II.
Managing to escape, he then headed the Greek coalition government (initially a
government-in-exile) from April 1944 until after the German army withdrew from
Greece in October 1944, but he resigned in December of that year as the country
slipped into civil war. From 1946 to 1952 he held ministerial posts in several
governments. During a subsequent period in opposition, he merged his Democratic
Socialist Party with the Liberal Party and in 1961 organized a new centre-left
coalition, the Centre Union.
In
1963 the Centre Union won a bare electoral majority, and Papandreou became prime
minister; but he resigned shortly afterward to seek an absolute majority, which
he obtained in new elections in 1964. As prime minister Papandreou introduced a
program of social reforms more far-reaching than those sought by previous
governments, and he also criticized what he viewed as the excessive influence of
the United States in his country. A crisis developed in 1965 when he clashed
with the Greek Former king, Constantine, over the control of conservative
officers in the army. In July 1965 the king dismissed Papandreou from the prime
ministry, after which a period of political instability ensued in Greece. In
1967, when it became clear that Papandreou's party was again headed for victory
in upcoming general elections, a military junta seized power in Greece and
arrested Papandreou and his son. They were later released, but the elder
Papandreou died soon afterward.