Konstantinos Karamanlis

Konstantinos Karamanlis
Κωσταντίνος Καραμανλής
Karamanlis in 1978
3rd President of Greece
In office 5 May 1990 – 10 March 1995
Prime Minister	Konstantinos Mitsotakis Andreas Papandreou
Preceded by	Christos Sartzetakis
Succeeded by	Konstantinos Stephanopoulos
In office 10 May 1980 – 10 March 1985
Prime Minister	Georgios Rallis Andreas Papandreou
Preceded by	Konstantinos Tsatsos
Succeeded by	Ioannis Alevras (Acting)
Prime Minister of Greece
In office 24 July 1974 – 10 May 1980
President	Phaedon Gizikis Michail Stasinopoulos Konstantinos Tsatsos
Deputy	Georgios Mavros
Preceded by	Adamantios Androutsopoulos
Succeeded by	Georgios Rallis
In office 4 November 1961 – 17 June 1963
Monarch	Paul
Preceded by	Konstantinos Dovas
Succeeded by	Panagiotis Pipinelis
In office 17 May 1958 – 20 September 1961
Monarch	Paul
Preceded by	Konstantinos Georgakopoulos
Succeeded by	Konstantinos Dovas
In office 6 October 1955 – 5 March 1958
Monarch	Paul
Preceded by	Alexander Papagos
Succeeded by	Konstantinos Georgakopoulos
Personal details
Born	(1907-03-08)8 March 1907 Küpköy, Salonica Vilayet, Ottoman Empire
Died	23 April 1998(1998-04-23) (aged 91) Athens, Greece
Resting place	Konstantinos Karamanlis Foundation Headquarters, Philothei, Athens
Political party	People's Party (1936–1951) Greek Rally (1951–1955) National Radical Union (1955–1963) New Democracy (1974–1998)
Spouse	Amalia Kanellopoulou ​ ​ (m. 1951; div. 1972)​
Relations	Kostas Karamanlis (nephew) Kostas Karamanlis (nephew)
Alma mater	University of Athens
Signature

Konstantinos G. Karamanlis (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Γ. Καραμανλής,^[1] pronounced [konstaˈdinos karamanˈlis]; 8 March 1907 – 23 April 1998) was a Greek politician who was the four-time Prime Minister of Greece and two-term president of the Third Hellenic Republic. A towering figure of Greek politics, his political career spanned portions of seven decades, covering much of the latter half of the 20th century.^[2]

Born near Serres in Macedonia, Karamanlis practiced law until his election to the Hellenic Parliament in 1936 as a member of the conservative People's Party. Rising through the ranks of Greek politics after World War II, Karamanlis became Minister of Labour in 1947, and in 1951 he was named Minister for Public Works in Alexandros Papagos's Greek Rally administration. He was appointed prime minister by King Paul of Greece after Papagos's death in 1955. During his first term, he applied a program of rapid industrialization, heavy investment on infrastructure and improvement on agricultural production, which led to the post-war Greek economic miracle. He also implemented the extension of full voting rights to women, which had stood dormant since 1952. In foreign affairs, he pursued an aggressive policy toward Greek membership in the European Economic Community (EEC), and abandoned the government's previous strategic goal for enosis (the unification of Greece and Cyprus) in favour of Cypriot independence.

In 1963, Karamanlis resigned following a disagreement with King Paul amidst spiralling political crises in Greece. He spent the next eleven years in self-imposed exile in Paris, while the country fell under military dictatorship after the 1967 coup d'état. After the fall of the junta in 1974, Karamanlis was recalled to Athens to assume interim premiership. This period, known as the Metapolitefsi, saw the country's transition to a pluralist democracy. His new party, New Democracy, won a commanding victory in the November 1974 elections, which were followed by a plebiscite that abolished the monarchy and established the Third Hellenic Republic. In 1980, Karamanlis resigned as prime minister and was elected President of the Republic. In 1981, he oversaw Greece's formal entry into the European Economic Community. He resigned from the presidency in 1985 but was again elected in 1990, and served until his retirement from active politics in 1995. Karamanlis died in 1998 at the age of 91.