The New Party or the Modernist Party ( el, Νεωτεριστικόν Κόμμα, ''Neoteristikon Komma'') was a reformist

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

Political background

During the

First Hellenic Republic The First Hellenic Republic ( grc-gre, Αʹ Ελληνική Δημοκρατία) was the provisional Greece, Greek state during the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire. From 1822 until 1827, it was known as the Provisional Ad ...

(1828–1832) and the reign of King Otto (1833–1863), the political parties were essentially based on clientage of the Great Powers: the

Russian Party The Russian Party ( el, Ρωσικό Κóμμα), presenting itself as the Napist Party ("Dell Party", el, κόμμα των Ναπαίων), one of the Early Greek parties, was an informal grouping of Greek political leaders that formed during t ...

, the

English Party The English Party ( el, Αγγλικό Κóμμα), was one of the three informal early Greek parties that dominated the political history of the First Hellenic Republic and the first years of the Kingdom of Greece during the early 19th century, ...

, and the

French Party The French Party ( el, Γαλλικό Κόμμα, Galliko Komma), presenting itself as the Constitutional Party ( el, Συνταγματικό Κόμμα), was one of the three informal early Greek parties that dominated the early political histor ...

. During the first years of the reign of King George I, the political life of the country did not differ considerably from the previous Othonian period. Moreover, the new Constitution of 1864 was directed toward the modernization of the political system. However, the crown's political interventions were undiminished, and "court governments" succeeded one another. The dissolution of the old political parties led to the creation of modern parties based on explicit and enduring parliamentary principles. Until the 1870s, loose parties continued to prevail without principles or a political program, instead based they were organized around the personality of a more or less charismatic leader. This situation changed with the dynamic intervention of

Charilaos Trikoupis Charilaos Trikoupis ( el, Χαρίλαος Τρικούπης; 11 July 1832 – 30 March 1896) was a Greek politician who served as a Prime Minister of Greece seven times from 1875 until 1895. He is best remembered for introducing the vote of c ...

, when he converted his Fifth Party into a new philosophically-based party. A supporter the British two-party parliamentary system; in 1873, he created the New Party (Neoteristiko Komma) according to the model of western democracies. Charilaos trikoupis2

After Trikoupis published his critical diatribe in the Athens daily ''Kairoi'' entitled "Who's to Blame" and clearly pointed the finger at royal favoritism in the selection of prime ministers, he was, after a brief time in prison, asked to form a government to lead the country into the 1875 general election. These were among the cleanest elections in Greek history, but the New Party was defeated by the Nationalist Party of

Alexandros Koumoundouros Alexandros Koumoundouros ( el, Αλέξανδρος Κουμουνδούρος, 4 February 1815 – 26 February 1883) was a Greek politician. Born in Kampos, on the Messenian side of the Mani Peninsula, he was the son of Spyridon-Galanis Koumoun ...

Philosophy of the party

The New Party was organized around the principles of modernization (defined as emulating Western European culture) of the political, social and economic life of the country. Specifically, the priority of the New Party was the development of the private economic sphere and the consequent restriction of state intervention in the economy. This political program was supported by the emerging middle class in the Greek state, the business activities of the Greeks living abroad and the western European investors who sought new investment opportunities partially because of the great decline of the traditional European economies. Thus, the program of the New Party introduced systematically into the Greek state the new ideas and principles of British liberalism. However, the program is not adequate enough to characterize it as a modern party. The absence of established governance procedures and organs within the party with responsibility for policy planning and decision-making rendered this party dependent on the leader like most historical political groupings throughout Greek history. Consequently, it might be more exact to characterize Neoteristiko as a "transitional" party since it made demands for the modernization of the parties rather than inaugurating new institutions and procedures by its actions.

Electoral history

The Nationalist Party remained in power most of the time until March 15, 1882. During this time, he was able to push through an aggressive program of reforms. Trikoupis was a strong believer in the need to create an infrastructure to support the economy, and to attract foreign investment. A progressive program of road and railroad construction significantly improved internal communications. The most important of the works he campaigned for was the digging of the Corinth Canal. In the 1885 general election, voters elected only 56 New Party deputies against 184 deputies for the Nationalist Party led by

Theodoros Deligiannis Theodoros Deligiannis () was a Greek politician, minister and member of the Greek Parliament, who served as Prime Minister of Greece five times from 1885 to 1905. He led the Nationalist Party, which, alongside the New Party led by his prima ...

. Despite the mandate, however, the Deligiannis government fell a year later and Trikoupis was again Prime Minister until 1890. Trikoupis led New Party governments again from June 22, 1892 to May 15, 1893 in which Trikoupis stood before parliament and made the most famous statement of his career: "Regretfully, we are broke". This was due to massive overspending as Greece sought to modernize its military forces on land and sea and each government struggled to outdo the previous. The servicing of foreign loans was suspended, and all non-essential spending was cut. The New Party was again in power from November 11, 1893 to January 24, 1895. It was during that time that the planning for the 1896 Summer Olympics was begun. Trikoupis was skeptical about the games and feared that the country could not burden the cost. He was convinced, eventually, to host them and made the needed arrangements. This would be his last term in office. Trikoupis tried to make terms with the creditors of his nation, but he failed there too. The first taxation which he proposed aroused great hostility, and in January, 1895 he resigned. At the 1895 general election, four months later, he and his New Party were defeated and, within a year, the only leader the New Party had ever known was dead.

Corfiot

Georgios Theotokis Georgios Theotokis ( el, Γεώργιος Θεοτόκης, 1844 in Corfu – 12 January 1916 in Athens) was a Greek politician and Prime Minister of Greece, serving the post four times. He represented the Modernist Party or ''Neoteristikon Ko ...

led the party and was prime minister from April 14, 1899 to November 25, 1901, from June 27, 1903 to July 11, 1903, and from December 19, 1903 to December 29, 1904, before winning the 1905 general election and serving as Prime Minister from December 21, 1905 – July 29, 1909. Ousted by the military as a result of the

Goudi Pronunciamento The Goudi coup ( el, κίνημα στο Γουδί) was a military coup d'état that took place in Greece on the night of , starting at the barracks in Goudi, a neighborhood on the eastern outskirts of Athens. The coup was a pivotal event in mod ...

, Theotokis was the last leader of the New Party. With the arrival of Eleftherios Venizelos in Greece in 1910, most liberal supporters gravitated to the new Komma Fileleftheron.

Leaders

(1875–1895) *

(1895–1910)

Sources

*Clogg, Richard; A Short History of Modern Greece; Cambridge University Press, 1979; *John A. Petropulos; Politics and Statecraft in the Kingdom of Greece; Princeton University Press, 1968 {{DEFAULTSORT:New Party Political parties established in 1873 Liberal parties in Greece Defunct liberal political parties Defunct political parties in Greece 1873 establishments in Greece Charilaos Trikoupis