321. Editorial Note
Greek national elections held on October 29 resulted in a victory for the National Radical Union, which captured 51 percent of the vote and 176 seats in Parliament. The Center Union won 34 percent and 100 seats. The EDA was the major loser, dropping from 24 to 15 percent and from 78 to 24 seats in the new Parliament. The King asked Karamanlis to form a new government. The Embassy commented:
“New Caramanlis Cabinet represents a reshuffling of old ERE elements plus strong injection of new blood notably in key economic areas. Papaligouras (Coordination) likely be strong personality in Cabinet [Page 622] along with Averoff in Foreign Affairs, Theotokis in Finance and Rallis in Interior. Appointment of Papaligouras and particularly Pipinelis in Commerce indicative of fact Caramanlis feels he has strength to place persons he considers most able into key positions despite possible disgruntlement of other tried and true ERE followers; Papaligouras led rebel movement which brought down Caramanlis govt in 1958 and Pipinelis has so far failed win parliamentary seat. Protopapadakis in Defense will be unknown quantity.
“We consider Cabinet on the whole an improvement by several notches over previous Caramanlis Cabinet.” (Telegram 600 from Athens, November 6; Department of State, Central Files, 781.13/11–661)
George Papandreou protested over the manner in which the elections were conducted, calling them fraudulent, and announcing that he would undertake a “relentless struggle” to topple the Karamanlis government and force new, untainted elections.