First, Konstantinos Karamanlis led the country to elections in November 1977, a year before completing his term.
By Antonis Anzoletou
Which was almost most of the time the big one dilemma of prime ministers after completing their second year in office? Early elections. History has shown that heads of government have always assessed the momentum for going to the polls. The economic situation combined with the climate in society and public opinion measurements usually determined their decisions. In any case, the risk was high and the recommendations they received from their partners were different. The most daring showed the way to the polls, the most institutional and cool did not rush. In this debate, the official opposition is constantly raising the gauntlet of the elections, trying to show that it is ready to take power. History testifies that since the post-colonization and after, the majority of electoral contests were held before their time.
First o Konstantinos Karamanlis one year before completing his term he led the country to elections in November 1977. It may have fallen from the absolute record of 54.37% he got after the fall of the dictatorship to 41.84%, but then the president of the newly formed ND had seen far in predicting the rise of PASOK of Andreas Papandreou.
The appeal to the polls of the founder of PASOK can also be considered premature four months before the end of his term, which began in October 1981. Elections were called in May and held in June 1985.
After the turbulent period of ecumenical governments and the fall of the Mitsotakis government in 1993, Kostas Simitistaking the place of Andreas Papandreou, announced early elections in September 1996. He did not exhaust his first term and appealed to the popular verdict in April 2000, cutting the thread first and leaving the ND behind.
The expiration of the constitutional term of his government was not chosen by Kostas Karamanlis in neither of his two terms. He was elected prime minister in March 2004 and led the country to elections before the constitutional deadline, winning again in September 2007. His second coup was not successful, as in October 2009 he handed over the keys to the Maximos Palace to George Papandreou.
THE SYRIZA’s defeat in the European elections and the local elections in May 2019, led Alexis Tsipras to hasten the national elections by about three months. On July 7, the ND with Kyriakos Mitsotakis won the majority of the Parliament with 158 MPs.
Epimythio: Even for a few months prime ministers largely choose to hasten the popular verdict. In some cases, even the defeat was discounted. Certainly each case and the tactic followed in this long period of 48 years was different. Three governments achieved the absolute of four years. ND 1977-1981, PASOK 1985-1989 and PASOK 2000-2004. Kyriakos Mitsotakis, according to his commitment, will be the fourth prime minister after Constantinos Karamanlis, Andreas Papandreou and Costas Simitis who is called upon to overcome the “sirens” and suggestions of his associates by completing his constitutional term. It is clear, however, that the 18 electoral contests that have taken place from 1974 until today make the parties not complacent and not stop their pre-election planning.
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