George Papandreou

Papandreou, George 

Born Feb. 13, 1888, in Patrai (Pa-tras); died Nov. 1, 1968, in Athens. Greek state and political figure.

A lawyer by training, Papandreou served as nomarch of Lesbos in 1915. From 1917 to 1920 he was governor-general of Chios. In the same period he became a prominent member of the Liberal Party, founded in 1910. Papandreou was repeatedly a member of the government between 1923 and 1933. He was arrested after the establishment of J. Metaxas’ fascist dictatorship on Aug. 4, 1936. In April 1944, Papandreou became prime minister of the Greek government-in-exile in Cairo.

After the conclusion of the Lebanon Agreement of 1944, Papandreou became the head of the so-called government of national unity, which in 1945 disarmed and disbanded the Greek National Popular Liberation Army. Between 1946 and 1951 he held several ministerial posts, and from 1954 to 1957 he was chairman of the Liberal Party. In 1961 he united a bloc of bourgeois parties into the Center Union Party and became its leader. After the Center Union won the parliamentary elections of 1963 and 1964, he was prime minister, serving in that capacity in November and December 1963 and from February to July 1965. On July 15, 1965, Papandreou resigned under pressure from the royal court. During the military coup d’etat of Apr. 21, 1967, he was arrested but was soon released.