page_title: National Progressive Center Union
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: National Progressive Center Union / History
caption_attribution_description: Ελληνικά: Νικόλαος Πλαστήρας, αξιωματικός του Ελληνικού Στρατού και αργότερα πρωθυπουργός της Ελλάδας. English: Nikolaos Plastiras, Greek Army officer and later Prime Minister of Greece.
context_page_description: The National Progressive Centre Union was a Greek Centrist political party. It was founded in 1950 by Nikolaos Plastiras, and formed a government with other Centrist parties after the 1950 elections which it contested. It later formed another coalition government after the resignation of Sofoklis Venizelos as Prime Minister, and another one in 1951 with Venizelos. After Plastiras's death in 1953, the party continued to exist, but was subsumed into the Centre Union in 1961.
context_section_description: EPEK was established on 14 January 1950 as an electoral alliance between ex-Prime Minister Emmanouil Tsouderos' Democratic Progressive Party (Dimokratikon Proodeftikon Komma) and General Nikolaos Plastiras' Progressive Liberal Centre Party (Komma Proodeftikon Fileleftheron Kentrou). King Paul was initially suspicious of Plastiras and his speeches indicated that he was prepared to give amnesty to the defeated Communists. Moreover, General Plastiras had had a stormy past with the royal family. Plastiras helped establish the Second Hellenic Republic in 1924 and twice - in 1933 and 1935 - tried to overthrow a royalist government, though he now claimed to be fully reconciled with the monarchy.
  
  In the 1950 Legislative Election, no less than 44 parties contested under a system of proportional representation. EPEK received 16.4 per cent of the vote and 45 seats. The EPEK vote was particularly strong in impoverished refugee regions where Plastiras had a sizeable personal following who were mostly left-leaning anyway. The hung parliament that was conceived after the 5 March election made it so a coalition government would have to be formed to constitute a majority in parliament. The leaders of the three centrist parties - The Liberal Party, the Georgios Papandreou Party (the Democratic Socialists) and EPEK - sent a note to the King informing him that they had reached an agreement and could form a government: 
  We have the honour to inform Your Majesty that we, the undersigned party leaders constituting a majority in Parliament, have agreed to form a Government whose policy will be as defined in the attached Note.
   Most importantly, the letter contained principles that all parties must follow, namely that all constituent parts must recognise Greece as a constitutional monarchy and that the Greek government must give its full support to the United Nations. The first problem regarding premiership of the centrist-led government first arose when the three parties began sponsoring different people. The Democratic Socialists led by Georgios Papandreou and EPEK both sponsored Plastiras, while the Liberal Party, the biggest single party of the three, sponsored its leader Sofoklis Venizelos. Venizelos formed a government instead, solely consisting of the Liberal Party and the small 'National Reconstruction Front'. Facing American pressure, Venizelos' government resigned and the King called on Plastiras, leader of the second largest party, to engineer a coalition government. Plastiras managed to get the Democratic Socialists and Liberals to participate and the three-party coalition was sworn in on 15 April with Plastiras at the helm. Members of coalition parties occupied cabinet positions: 6 EPEK, 5 Liberals and 5 Democratic Socialists.
  It only took until August when this government fell. Nikolaos Plastiras wished to widen the scope of the leniency measures, however, his coalition partners were against any such advances. Plastiras began to frustratedly speak out against his colleagues and on 17 August the Liberal element fully withdrew from Plastiras' government. And so Plastiras submitted his resignation. Venizelos formed a new Liberal-led cabinet with the 'National Reconstruction Party' in tow. Two days before the customary vote of confidence, EPEK withdrew support from the new government and the Venizelos government resigned after it failed to obtain the votes to carry on.
  The Election of 9 September 1951 was contested by 9 parties in a parliament of 258 seats under a system of 'reinforced' proportional representation. EPEK displaced the Liberal Party as the second largest party in parliament garnering 23.5 per cent of the vote and 74 seats. Meanwhile, the forces of the right had flocked to the standard of Alexandros Papagos' Greek Rally party which emerged as the largest party with 114 seats. King Paul met with the leaders of the three largest parties - Papagos, Plastiras and Venizelos - to discuss the formation of a government. Papagos, as leader of the largest party, was called on first, but he declined on the grounds that his party wo
caption: Nikolaos Plastiras c. 1924
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