The National Radical Union ( el, Ἐθνικὴ Ῥιζοσπαστικὴ Ἕνωσις (ΕΡΕ), ''Ethnikī́ Rizospastikī́ Énōsis'' (ERE)) was a

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 formed in 1956 by

Konstantinos Karamanlis Konstantinos G. Karamanlis ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Γ. Καραμανλής, ; 8 March 1907 – 23 April 1998), commonly anglicised to Constantine Karamanlis or just Caramanlis, was a four-time prime minister and twice as the president of ...

, mostly out of the Greek Rally party.

History

ERE was a conservative, right-wing party, which also had some prominent centrist members, such as: *

Panagiotis Kanellopoulos Panagiotis Kanellopoulos or Panayotis Kanellopoulos ( el, Παναγιώτης Κανελλόπουλος; 13 December 1902, in Patras, Achaea – 11 September 1986, in Athens) was a Greek writer, politician and Prime Minister of Greece. He w ...

Konstantinos Tsatsos Konstantinos D. Tsatsos ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Τσάτσος; July 1, 1899 – October 8, 1987) was a Greek diplomat, professor of law, scholar and politician. He served as the second President of the Third Hellenic Republic from 197 ...

, president of the Greek Republic from 1975 to 1980. *

Evangelos Averoff Evangelos Averoff-Tositsa (Greek: Ευάγγελος Αβέρωφ Τοσίτσας) (Trikala, 17 April 1910 – Athens, 2 January 1990) was a Greek politician, leader of the right wing party New Democracy (1981–1984), member of parliament, an ...

, minister of foreign affairs in Karamanlis' governments (1955–1963) and leader of ND from 1981 to 1984. Karamanlis resigned from the leadership of ERE in 1963 and was succeeded by

. The cause of Karamanlis' resignation was the hotly contested elections of 1961 (known as elections of "violence and fraud"). According to official results, ERE won the elections. But the opposition Centre Union and United Democratic Left accused the government of Karamanlis of massive fraud, did not acknowledge the result, and Centre Union's leader

George Papandreou George Andreas Papandreou ( el, Γεώργιος Ανδρέας Παπανδρέου, , shortened to ''Giorgos'' () to distinguish him from his grandfather; born 16 June 1952) is a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece from ...

organised massive demonstrations ("uncompromising struggle") and called for new elections. Karamanlis felt gravely insulted and resigned from the Premiership and the leadership of the party. New elections were held in 1963 where ERE lost, and a year later, in 1964 which the Centre Union won with the second highest percentage in Greek history, 54 percent of the vote. Kanellopoulos remained leader of the party until 1967, when he formed a government which did not last more than a month, as it was overthrown by the Greek military junta of 1967–1974. After 1967 ERE, like all political parties, was outlawed. It was never refounded. Karamanlis formed a new party in 1974,

New Democracy New Democracy, or the New Democratic Revolution, is a concept based on Mao Zedong's Bloc of Four Social Classes theory in post-revolutionary China which argued originally that democracy in China would take a path that was decisively distinc ...

, which he himself described as being somewhat more moderate than the ERE.

Electoral history

Hellenic Parliament elections

References

Conservative parties in Greece Eastern Orthodox political parties History of Greece (1949–1974) Defunct political parties in Greece Political parties established in 1956 1956 establishments in Greece 1960s in Greek politics Constantinos Karamanlis Right-wing parties in Europe 1974 disestablishments in Greece Political parties disestablished in 1974 Banned political parties {{Greece-party-stub