Liberal Party (Greece)
자유당 (그리스)
A Greek liberal party founded in 1910 by Eleftherios Venizelos. It won most elections between 1910 and 1933 and dominated Greek politics in the first half of the twentieth century; after the National Schism it became a republican party and led the republic of the 1920s. It weakened after the Second World War and suspended its activity in 1961, after 51 years, when it led the founding of the Centre Union.
In depth
According to the Greek source, Venizelos founded the Liberal Party after being elected a deputy on 22 August 1910; in October he formed a government and called elections for a revisionary parliament on 28 November 1910. All the old parties abstained, so the Liberals dominated; that parliament passed a new constitution in 1911, and the Liberals won again in the general elections of March 1912 in which all parties took part. The English source traces the party to the “Party of the Barefeet” in Crete, which Venizelos turned into a national party under the Liberal name in 1910 after moving to Athens. The party used the anchor as its electoral symbol.
In February 1915, after disagreeing with King Constantine over Greece’s entry into the First World War, Venizelos resigned, but the Liberals won again in the May elections with 58.2%. In the elections of 1 November 1920 the party won more votes but fewer seats because of the complex electoral system, and Venizelos, who failed to win a seat, left for France. When Venizelos stepped down again in 1924 the party split into three groups under Georgios Kafantaris, Themistoklis Sofoulis and Andreas Michalakopoulos. Venizelos won the elections of 19 August 1928 with 46.9% and 178 of 250 seats, but lost his majority in September 1932 and was defeated on 5 March 1933. After failed pro-Venizelist coup attempts in 1933 and 1935, laws persecuting Venizelists were passed and Venizelos and Nikolaos Plastiras were sentenced to death in absentia.
The English source describes the party’s platform as modernising, liberal, social and nationalist — Venizelism. Although it contained a social-democratic wing, it became increasingly anti-communist in the 1920s; after the National Schism it became decidedly republican and went on to dominate the Second Hellenic Republic. Its base was the middle class and the populations of the New Lands, and its main competitor was the People’s Party.
After Venizelos fled in 1935, Sofoulis became leader. According to the English source, the Greek government in exile in Cairo during the Second World War was formed almost entirely of prominent Liberals. After the war the party split in February 1946 and reunited in 1947; Sofoklis Venizelos became leader in November 1948 and formed three successive governments between August 1950 and October 1951. After the 1952 defeat by Alexandros Papagos’s Greek Rally, Georgios Papandreou took over the party, but it split again, and in the 1958 elections it came third with 20.67% and 36 seats. When Sofoklis Venizelos was re-elected leader that November, leading figures such as Papandreou and Konstantinos Mitsotakis left. In 1961 the party led the founding of the Centre Union and suspended its activity.