page_title: Konstantinos Karamanlis
section_title: First premiership
hierarchical_section_title: Konstantinos Karamanlis / First premiership
caption_attribution_description: English: Opening of Pipeline at Keratsini. Konstantinos Karamanlis at center wheel. Stefanos Natsinas at left wheel.
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: After World War II, Karamanlis quickly rose through the ranks of Greek politics. His rise was strongly supported by fellow party-member and close friend Lambros Eftaxias, who served as Minister for Agriculture under the premiership of Konstantinos Tsaldaris. Karamanlis's first cabinet position was Minister for Labour in 1947 under the same administration. In 1951, along with most prominent members of the People's Party, Karamanlis joined the Greek Rally of Alexandros Papagos. When this party won the Greek legislative election on 9 September 1951, Karamanlis became Minister of Public Works in the Papagos administration. He won the admiration of the US Embassy for the efficiency with which he built road infrastructure and administered American aid programs.
  When Papagos died after a brief illness (October 1955), King Paul of Greece appointed the 48-year-old Karamanlis as Prime Minister. The King's appointment took the Greek political world by surprise, as it bypassed Stephanos Stephanopoulos and Panagiotis Kanellopoulos, two senior Greek Rally politicians who were widely considered as the heavyweights most likely to succeed Papagos. After becoming Prime Minister, Karamanlis reorganized the Greek Rally as the National Radical Union. One of the first bills he promoted as Prime Minister implemented the extension of full voting rights to women, which stood dormant although nominally approved in 1952. Karamanlis won three successive elections (February 1956, May 1958 and October 1961).
  In 1959 he announced a five-year plan (1959-64) for the Greek economy, emphasizing improvement of agricultural and industrial production, heavy investment on infrastructure and the promotion of tourism, setting the bases of the post-WWII Greek economic miracle.
caption: Karamanlis at an opening of a pipeline at Keratsini.
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