Petros Garoufalias

Petros Garoufalias (Greek: Πέτρος Γαρουφαλιάς, 1901 – September 17, 1984) was a Greek politician and businessman, President of the Fix Beer Company. He was a major financial backer of Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou, under whom he served as Minister of Defense. However, in 1965 he was heavily involved in the events known as the "Apostacy", which led to the fall of the Center Union government.

Life

Born in Arta in 1901, Garoufalias came from a prominent family of the Arta region; his ancestor Nikolaos Garoufalias was a member of Filiki Eteria and had fought in the Greek War of Independence in the 1820s.^[1] His father, Evangelos Garoufalias, had served as Mayor of Arta and as Member of Parliament.^[1]

Garoufalias graduated from the Law School of Athens University and earned post-graduate degrees in Commercial Law and Economics in Berlin and Paris.^[2]

He served as a Member of Parliament for Arta region, and was closely associated with Georgios Papandreou. With Papandreou's help, Garoufalias was named Minister of Public Order, Minister of the Interior and Deputy Minister of National Economy (Coordination) in the centrist governments of 1950–52, under Prime Ministers Nikolaos Plastiras and Sophocles Venizelos (Papandreou himself was Deputy Prime Minister).

He married Marianthi Fix, widow of industrialist Ioannis Fix, and thus inherited the Fix Beer Company. George Papandreou was best man (koumparos) at the wedding.

Garoufalias was named Greek Minister of Defense in the third Papandreou government, from February 1964 to July 1965. He clashed with the Prime Minister's son, Andreas Papandreou (also a minister in the government) over the control of the Greek military; Garoufalias took the side of the King in the events known as the "Apostacy", which contributed to the downfall of the government, a deep political crisis and, eventually, to the imposition of the dictatorial Regime of the Colonels.^[2]

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