Ο Andreas Papandreou with his presence and his political activity during the period of Post-Communism and became one of the most influential politicians in the modern history of Greece. An internationally renowned economist, with a tenure at American and European universities, he became involved in politics in the mid-sixties through the ranks of the Union of Centre (the party co-founded and led by his father George Papandreou) and after the return of democracy in 1974, he founded the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), which was destined to play a decisive role in the political affairs of the country, before its collapse due to the memoranda and the economic crisis.
A charismatic personality with fanatical supporters and equally devoted enemies, he served as Prime Minister of Greece from 21 October 1981 to 2 July 1989 and from 13 October 1993 to 17 January 1996, when he resigned for health reasons. In total, he stayed at the helm of the country for 10 years (15 days), which ranks him fourth in the table of the longest serving Greek Prime Ministers, behind Konstantinos Karamanlis, Eleftherios Venizelos and Charilaos Trikoupis.
The birth and the flight from Greece
Andreas Papandreou was born in Chios, on 5 February 1919, where his father Georgios Papandreou was serving as General Governor of the Aegean Islands, appointed by the government of Eleftherios Venizelos. His mother was Sophia Mineiko (1887-1981), daughter of the philhellenic Polish officer, Sigmund Mineiko, who had put down roots in Greece and married a Greek woman.
A restless and lively spirit, Andreas Papandreou is arrested for the first time by the Metaxas dictatorship, as a student at the College of Athens, for his leftist ideas and for the second time in March 1939 as a student of the Law School of the University of Athens. After spending several days in solitary confinement, he is released from prison and in July he leaves for the USA with very little money in his pocket.
Shortly after his arrival in America, he begins to studied economics at Harvard University, from which he received a doctorate in 1943. He specialized in Economic Theory and Method, Industrial Organization, Comparative Economic Systems, Theory and Method of Economic Policy and Planning, and Economic Development.
After four years in the USA, he received his American citizenship and in the same year enlisted as a volunteer in the US Navy, in the middle of the Second World War. After his retirement, he pursued a university career as a professor at Harvard, Minnesota, Northwestern and Berkeley Universities, where he served as Dean of the School of Economics (1956-1959).
In 1941, at the age of 22, he married for the first time with the future psychiatrist Christina Rassia, a marriage that would last 10 years and end in divorce. In the meantime he had met the young Margarita Chad, whom he would marry the same year and with her he would have four children.
The return to Greece and involvement in politics
In the period 1959-1960 he visited Greece with a mission of the Fulbright and Guggenheim Foundations to study the Greek economy. He was then invited by Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis and took over the direction of the Centre for Economic Research (1960-1964), which on his recommendation became the Centre for Planning and Economic Research (CEPE). He served as an economic adviser to the Bank of Greece until 1962.
In those years he made his first steps in politics, through the ranks of the Union Center. In the elections of 16 February 1964, which were triumphantly won by the Centre Union with a percentage of 52.72%, he stood for the first time as a candidate for MP and was elected in the region of Achaia. In the government formed by his father, Minister of the Presidency of the Government (19/2/1964 - 5/6/1964) and deputy minister of Coordination with Stefanos Stephanopoulos as minister (5/6/1964 - 19/11/1964). In this ministry he will have his first major test, when the National Executive Committee will accuse him - without finally proving it - of having given the urban planning project of Patras to a friend of his («Skiadaressis scandal»).
His modernist political positions, which came into conflict with those of other members of the Centre Union, provoked reactions which were expressed with particular sharpness and severe characterizations by the columns of the newspaper «Eleftheria», which belonged to the centrist area. The resignation of Andreas Papandreou from his ministerial post temporarily suspended the crisis already raging in the ruling party. Andreas Papandreou has since devoted himself to attempt to give form and expression to the centre-left wing of the Centre Union. He rejoined the government as Deputy Minister of Coordination on 29 April 1965 and remained in it until its fall on 15 July of the same year. After again assuming ministerial duties, was accused of being the instigator of a military conspiracy (the ASPIDA case). This was followed by escalating political tension, culminating in the «Juliana» of 1965, the resignation of the Papandreou government after its break with the Palace and the subsequent «Apostasy» with successive moribund governments.
The political debate continued to intensify at a steady pace, while the first complaints about the risk of a political diversion began to be heard. Andreas Papandreou, who never ceased to denounce the throne and non-Hellenic factors as the causes of the abnormal situation and to rouse the people of the centre-left about the need to defend democratic institutions with slogans such as «Greece to the Greeks» and «The Army to the Nation», was a prime target of his opponents, who accused him of being an enemy of normality.
The years of the junta
With the imposition of the coup d'état of 21 April 1967, Andreas Papandreou was arrested in an adventurous manner at his home in Psychiko and detained at the Averoff prison until December, when the military regime granted amnesty and released him. In January 1968 he was given permission to leave for abroad. In the seven or so years of his absence from Greece, Andreas Papandreou developed a strong and multifaceted resistance against the dictatorial regime in Athens.
A month later, on 27 February, founded the Panhellenic Liberation Movement (PAK), initially based in Stockholm and with the strong support of the Swedish governments. He believed that the overthrow of the colonial junta would only be possible after a continuous and consistent popular struggle. The ideological objectives of this struggle were ultimately aimed at the radical transformation of Greece's social and political structure and the reorientation of its international relations.
In addition to his resistance activities, during his years of exile he taught as a professor of economics at the universities of Stockholm (1968-1969) and York (1969-1974). During his stay in Sweden, he had his fifth child, Emilia Niblum (b. 1969), who was the fruit of his love affair with the actress and TV presenter Rania Niblum (1930-2017).
His return to Greece and the founding of PASOK
He returned to Greece about a month after the fall of the junta, on 16 August 1974, and was greeted with enthusiasm by thousands of like-minded people who flooded Elliniko airport. Having distanced himself from the Centre Union, founded, on 3 September, the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), which included political forces from the PAC, resistance groups and personalities from the broader democratic party.
The «Declaration of September 3rd» was the ideological and political compass of the movement, summarized in the fourfold «National Independence - Popular Sovereignty - Social Liberation - Democratic Process. As Andreas Papandreou stressed, the »basic sovereign goal of the movement is the creation of a state free from foreign control or interference, a state free from the control or influence of the economic oligarchy.
In the elections of 17 November 1974, PASOK garnered 13.58% of the votes (behind the triumphant ND and the EPP which occupied the position of the opposition), much to the disappointment of its founder, who aimed for higher percentages, having run with the maximalist slogan «On 18 socialism». Andreas Papandreou was elected MP for Thessaloniki (1974-1977) and until his death he was re-elected to the Athens 1st (1977-1989) and the Athens 2nd (1989-1996).
In the period leading up to the next elections, it completely cleared the internal party landscape and imposed its dominance, writing off many prominent figures who accused him of lacking internal democracy. His sharp oppositional tones were aimed not only at the government of Constantine Karamanlis, but also at the EP-ND, which he sought to wipe off the political map and dominate the centre and centre-left with PASOK.
In the elections of 20 November 1977, PASOK doubled its share (25.34%) and became the opposition party and began its frenetic march to power. PASOK's positions were set out in full in the 1981 pre-election declaration with the «Declaration of Government Policy» (better known as the «Contract with the People»).
PASOK in government, the people in power
In the elections of 18 October 1981, PASOK achieved an overwhelming victory, garnering 48.06% of the votes and 172 seats in the Parliament. Thus Andreas Papandreou became Prime Minister of the country and formed the first left-wing government in the history of the Greek state. At the same time, he took over the direction of the Ministry of National Defence (1981-1985), in order to reassure the troops.
The first four years of PASOK's government were characterised by significant changes in many areas of domestic policy (civil marriage, monotonic, changes in higher education, the National Health Service, recognition of the National Resistance, etc.). Expansionary fiscal policy with borrowed money may have relieved the «underprivileged» Greeks, but it began to put a significant burden on the public debt. On foreign policy issues, Andreas Papandreou had as his axis «independent and multidimensional Greek policy» and the implementation in the Balkans of a firm policy of peace and friendship.
Apart from these political manipulations, he also moved on to broader European and international frameworks (ungoverned zones, Third World, «Sixth World Initiative», etc.), for which he was accused by his opponents of «isolating the country from its natural allies». However, the American bases will not leave Greece, the country will remain in the EEC and Andreas Papandreou will succeed in getting the Community to establish a new development instrument called Mediterranean Integrated Programmes (MIPs).
Andreas Papandreou's second term in government
Andreas Papandreou's first term as Prime Minister was completed with his proposal for a limited constitutional revision, which was aimed primarily at weakening the powers of the President of the Republic and de facto strengthening the political position of the Prime Minister.This was followed by the proposal to replace the then President of the Republic, Konstantinos Karamanlis, with the archdeacon Christos Sarzetakis. The government's ambitions, for which New Democracy reacted strongly, were politically validated by the elections of 2 June 1985, in which PASOK won 45.82% of the votes and 161 seats. Andreas Papandreou formed his second government while starting a two-year austerity programme.
In 1988, the Koskosota scandal, which involved members of the government, but also Andreas Papandreou himself. A period of great political tension followed. In the same year, Andreas Papandreou's health problems began. was rushed to London's Herfield Hospital and underwent major open-heart surgery by renowned heart surgeon Magdi Yakub.
These events led to the fall of PASOK in the elections of 18 June 1989. The parliamentary majority, formed by the New Democracy of Konstantinos Mitsotakis and the united Coalition of the Left under Charilaos Florakis and Leonidas Kyrkos, referred Andreas Papandreou to the Special Court for the Koskotas scandal, together with the former ministers of his governments Agamemnon Koutsogiorgas, Dimitris Tsovolas and George Petsos.
Andreas Papandreou, in a speech before the Parliament, did not deny his political responsibilities and considered his referral to the Special Court as a political persecution aimed at his political extermination and the dissolution of PASOK. He did not participate in the hearing (16/3/1991 - 16/1/1992), which was televised and occupied public opinion for ten months. With the Special Court's acquittal of Andreas Papandreou by a vote of 7-6, a chapter of Greek political life, which has gone down in history as the «Purge» or «Dirty ’89», was closed. During this time, Andreas Papandreou divorced his second wife Margarita and married in a third marriage the air hostess Dimitra Liani (b.1955), a relationship that was extensively covered by the gossip press.
The third government of Andreas Papandreou
The hearing and the outcome of the trial allowed Andreas Papandreou to raise the issue of misleading the electorate during the three parliamentary elections of 1989-1990, which ultimately gave a narrow parliamentary majority to New Democracy of Konstantinos Mitsotakis.
In the early elections of 10 October 1993, called after the resignation of the Mitsotakis government due to intense internal party problems, PASOK triumphantly returned to power with 46.821% of the vote and Andreas Papandreou formed his third government. He would rule for about two years, as in November 1995 he was transferred to the Onassis Heart Surgery Centre with serious health problems, which led him to resign as Prime Minister on 17 January 1996. During this time he was replaced by the Minister of Interior Akis Tsochatzopoulos. After his health improved, he was discharged from hospital in March of that year.
During his third term of government, Andreas Papandreou Papandreou pursued a prudent and tight economic policy in view of EMU, while the positive aspects of his government include creation of the AΣEP for the merit-based recruitment of civil servants (Peponi Law). In foreign policy, the following is announced Unified Defence Doctrine Greece-Cyprus and an embargo is imposed on FYROM.
Andreas Papandreou breathed his last in the morning of 23 June 1996, at the age of 77, after a heart attack.
