page_title: Konstantinos Karamanlis
section_title: Accession of Greece to the European Communities
hierarchical_section_title: Konstantinos Karamanlis / First and second Presidency / Accession of Greece to the European Communities
caption_attribution_description: Ελληνικά: Μεταξόπουλος, Πάντειο English: Aimilios Metaxopoulos with various others, see picture for details.
context_page_description: Konstantinos G. Karamanlis, commonly anglicised to Constantine Karamanlis or just Caramanlis, was a four-time Prime Minister and twice President of the Third Hellenic Republic, and a towering figure of Greek politics, whose political career spanned much of the latter half of the 20th century.
  The longest serving Prime Minister of modern Greek history, during his first term he applied a program of rapid industrialization, heavy investment on infrastructure and improvement on agricultural production, which led to the post-war Greek economic miracle. He implemented also the extension of full voting rights to women, which stood dormant since 1952.
  In his second term, after 1974, he is recognised for his successful restoration of Democracy after the Greek military junta and by establishing the Third Hellenic Republic, bringing an end to continuous military coups and political instability of around half a century.
  A devoted pro-Europeanist, he is credited also for the country's accession to the European Communities. In 1978 he was awarded the Charlemagne Prize.
  His supporters lauded him as the charismatic Ethnarches.
context_section_description: Following his signing of the Accession Treaty with the European Economic Community (now the European Union) in 1979, Karamanlis relinquished the Premiership and was elected President of the Republic in 1980 by the Parliament, and in 1981 he oversaw Greece's formal entry into the European Economic Community as its tenth member. He served until 1985 then resigned and was succeeded by Christos Sartzetakis. It is famous his phrase during the 1989 political crisis and the political polarisation of the era: "Hellas has been transformed to an endless bedlam."
  In 1990 he was re-elected President by a conservative parliamentary majority (under the conservative government of then Prime Minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis) and served until 1995, when he was succeeded by Kostis Stephanopoulos.
caption: Old Karamanlis in Panteion University
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