National Radical Union

National Radical Union
Εθνική Ριζοσπαστική Ένωσις
President Konstantinos Karamanlis (1955–1963)
Panagiotis Kanellopoulos (1963–1967)
Founded 1956
Dissolved 1974
Preceded by Greek Rally
Succeeded by New Democracy
Ideology Conservatism[1][2]
Political position Right-wing[3][4][5]
European affiliation European Democratic Union (associate)
International affiliation None
Colours      Blue

The National Radical Union (Greek: Ἐθνικὴ Ῥιζοσπαστικὴ Ἕνωσις (ΕΡΕ), Ethnikī́ Rizospastikī́ Énōsis (ERE)) was a Greek political party formed in 1956 by Konstantinos Karamanlis, mostly out of the Greek Rally party.

History

ERE was a conservative, right-wing party, which also had some prominent centrist members, such as:

Karamanlis resigned from the leadership of ERE in 1963 and was succeeded by Panagiotis Kanellopoulos. The cause of Karamanlis' resignation was the hotly contested elections of 1961 (known as elections of "violence and fraud"). According to official results, ERE won the elections. But the opposition Centre Union and United Democratic Left accused the government of Karamanlis of massive fraud, did not acknowledge the result, and Centre Union's leader George Papandreou organised massive demonstrations ("uncompromising struggle") and called for new elections. Karamanlis felt gravely insulted and resigned from the Premiership and the leadership of the party. New elections were held in 1963 where ERE lost, and a year later, in 1964 which the Centre Union won with the second highest percentage in Greek history, 54 percent of the vote.

Kanellopoulos remained leader of the party until 1967, when he formed a government which did not last more than a month, as it was overthrown by the Greek military junta of 1967–1974. After 1967 ERE, like all political parties, was outlawed. It was never reformed. Karamanlis formed a new party in 1974, New Democracy, which he himself described as being somewhat more moderate than the ERE.

References

  1. ↑ Clogg, Richard (1992), A Concise History of Greece (Second ed.), Cambridge University Press, p. 159
  2. ↑ Charalambis, Dimitris; Maratou-Alipranti, Laura; Hadjiyanni, Andromachi (2004), Recent Social Trends in Greece, 1960-2000, McGill-Queen's University Press, p. 10
  3. ↑ Calogeopoulos, Andreas (2004), "The Hellenic Republic", Constitutional Law of 15 EU Member States, Kluwer, p. 374
  4. ↑ Verney, Susannah (1990), "To be or not to be within the European Community: the party debate and democratic consolidation in Greece", Securing Democracy: Political Parties and Democratic Consolidation in Southern Europe, Routledge, p. 206
  5. ↑ Charalambis, Dimitris; Maratou-Alipranti, Laura; Hadjiyanni, Andromachi (2004), Recent Social Trends in Greece, 1960-2000, McGill-Queen's University Press, p. 370


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