Parliamentary election in Greece 1963 – Wikipedia

The Parliamentary election in Greece 1963 took place on November 3, 1963. The winner of the parliamentary election was the 1961 of Georgios Papandreou founded enosis Kendrou (EK, Center Union), which won a relative majority of votes (42.04%) and the parliamentary seats (138 mandates), but the absolute majority (151 seats) failed. The right-conservative ethnici rizospastiki enosis (ere, since 1956 National radical Union ) lost the absolute majority, which was achieved in 1956, 1958 and 1961, through considerable losses of votes (−11.44%) and associated the loss of 44 parliamentary seats. The parliamentary majorities for right-wing conservative parties since 1952 ended with the election in 1963. The Left Party Eniea Dimokriki Aristera ( Greek Single Democratic Left EPA , Association of the democratic left EDA ) won 6 mandates, the proportion of votes of the Pandimocrotiko Agrotiko Metopo (pandemocratic rural front), which had been involved in 1961, was able to maintain 14.34% in 1963 compared to 14.63% in 1961.

The EK summarized the previously individual parties in the middle, the left conservatives and the conservative left in one party. In the EK, the Epek party founded by Nikolaos Plastiras, the Liberal Party of the post -war years founded by Sophoclis Venizelos and the Democratic Socialist Party or Liberal Democratic Union of Georgios Papandreou. In addition to these parties in the middle, the EK also included liberal conservatives such as Konstantinos Mitsotakis and Stephanos Stephanopoulos, which were opposed to the ERE and Karamanlis. They formed the right party wing of the EK. The left party wing was represented by the son Georgios Papandreou: Andreas Papandreou. In this constellation, the EK was a broad party with a possible wide range of voters in the middle and into the conservative and left -wing camp. At the same time, the party also had strong wings that were represented by prominent people.

The parliamentary election found after the increased proportion of proportions instead of. Here, the strongest party after voting shares received more seats in parliament than it would fall through the vote. The elections were carried out under the election obligation. Men and women over the age of 18 were entitled to vote for active voting rights. The legal foundations of the election were the laws 4173/1961 and 4322/1963 published in the Efimeris TIS Kyderniseos (government gazette of the government;) 104 of September 11, 1963.

The trigger for the implementation of the parliamentary elections was the resignation of the long -time prime minister and chairman of the Ere Konstantinos Karamanlis. According to continued criticism, Karamanlis was weakened by the opposition parties EK and EDA at the election manipulations of the parliamentary elections in 1961. EK and EDA threw the government of Karamanli before manipulation and unfair pressure from the army and the Kyp secret service under the leadership of General Natsina, a suspect in participating in the military coup of March 1951, with the use of the plan “Periklis”, the election results in 1961 falsified in his favor have. ^[first] The elections were, for example, referred to by Papandreou as “Ekloges Tis Via’s Ke Nothias” (elections of violence and fraud). The opposition boycotted both the ceremonial opening of the parliament by King Paul in December 1961 as well as the vote for trust in the Karamanlis government. ^[2] In March 1962, a special court canceled the results of four polling stations in the Thessaloniki region because the local police commander had forced voters to submit the voice for the ERE. The major demonstration in Athens, which took place three days later, was violent against the government, which prompted Papandreou to determine that the government could only “remain in office with the application of violence.” ^[2]

The murder of the homicide at the EDA MP Grigoris Lambrakis in Thessaloniki in the middle of the election campaign for the 1963 elections and the discovery of the participation of state security organs in the attack on Lambrakis by the investigative judge Christos Sartzetakis tightened the criticism of Karamanlis, which in the accusation Papandreous’ culminated that Karamanlis was the “moral instigator of the murder of Lambrakis.” ^{[3] [4]} Immediately before the elections in 1963, the Caramanli fell into conflict with the royal family, especially the headstrong Queen Friederike, about the time of the implementation of a royal state visit in Great Britain. ^[5] Karamanlis resigned as Prime Minister on June 17, 1963 and left Greece towards Switzerland. ^[2] A transitional government under the previous Minister of Commerce Panagiotis Pipinelis (ERE) prepared the elections in November 1963. ^[6] The Pipineli government could not enforce the amendment to the electoral law in favor of the ERE. He resigned on September 29, 1963. The new Prime Minister Stylianos Mavromicanis led a transitional government to the swearing -in of Georgios Papandreou as Greek Prime Minister on November 8, 1963.

Karamanlis returned to Greece from Switzerland for the election campaign. After the election of his ERE, he left Greece and went to Paris in French exile until his return in 1974. ^[5] Panagiotis Kanellopoulos took over the office of party leaders of the ERE.

The Papandreou government did not last long due to the lack of absolute majority of the EK. On December 24, 1963, Papandreou won a vote in the parliament with 167 to 130 votes. Nevertheless, he was disappointed with the outcome: 28 votes from the EDA had supported him in the vote. Papandreou “did not want to have the fate of his government based on the support of communists” – and stepped down. ^[2] A transitional government prepared new elections for February 16, 1964.

• Werner Voigt: Results of the elections and referendums. In: Klaus-Detlev Grothuse (ed.): Southeast Europe manual. Band III: Greece. Verlag Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1980, ISBN 3-525-36202-1, p. 674.
• Antonis M. Pantelis, Stefanos I. Koutsoumpinas, Triantafyllos A. Gerozisis: Texts of Constitutional History. Band 2, S. 852.

1. ↑ Theodore A. Couloumbis: Post World War II Greece: A Political Review. In: East European Quarterly. Vol. 7, No. 3, autumn 1973, p. 285 ff.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Thomas P. trumpets: Consensus and Cleavage: Party Alignment in Greece, 1945–1965. In: Parliamentary Affairs. 19(3), 1966, S. 295–311.
3. ↑ Richard Clogg: History of Greece in the 19th and 20th centuries. An outline. Romiosini Verlag, Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-923889-13-7 , S. 192.
4. ↑ Pavlos Tzermias: New Greek history. An introduction. 3rd, over -the -counter And ad. Edition. Francke Verlag, Tübingen/ Basel 1999, ISBN 3-7720-1792-4, p. 190.
5. ↑ ^{a b} Richard Clogg: History of Greece in the 19th and 20th centuries. An outline. Romiosini Verlag, Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-923889-13-7 , S. 193.
6. ↑ Website of the General Secretariat of the Greece government (Geniki Grammatia Tis Kyvernisis) on the ministerial list of ministers and terms of the government of Constantinos Karamanlis from 1961 to 1963 (in Greek). ( Memento of the Originals from September 27, 2007 in Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been used automatically and not yet checked. Please check original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. @first @2 Template: Webachiv/Iabot/GGK.GR