 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (August 2024) |
| This article is part of a series on |
| Politics of Greece |
|---|
 |
| Part of a series on |
| Liberalism |
|---|
 |
| Part of the Politics series |
| Republicanism |
|---|
 Politics portal |
Venizelism (Greek: Βενιζελισμός) was one of the major political movements in Greece beginning from the 1910s. The movement first formed under Eleftherios Venizelos in the 1910s and saw a resurgence of support in the 1960s when Georgios Papandreou united a coalition of old Venizelists and nationalist politicians.
The movement was characterized by the beliefs of Eleftherios Venizelos and ideas of Greek irredentism supporting the Megali Idea. It had a Francophile stance as the ideas of the French Revolution and the idea of one state which should have all the lands which are predominantly inhabited by a certain ethnicity. In WWI the Venizelists wished to join the Entente, mainly due to the entrance of the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria which was one of the greatest chances to gain all lands Greeks claim and thus fulfilling the Megali idea. Venizelism is despite popular misconceptions, a movement which does side with monarchy, however it calls for a ruling class in which the urban class can rise the ranks by merit, additionally that the king come from the same country that he is ruling, thus not having loyalties to foreign interests. Venizelism calls for early and more moderate capitalistic economic policies such as open markets but those markets should be approved by the government. The movement had its strongest support in Crete, Thrace, Epirus, the North Aegean islands, and Macedonia.