page_title: Alexandros Papanastasiou
section_title: Political career
hierarchical_section_title: Alexandros Papanastasiou / Political career
caption_attribution_description: Proclamation of the Second Hellenic Republic in Greece. Crowds holding placards depicting Prime Minister Alexandros Papanastasiou and the Republican military leaders, Admiral Alexandros Hatzikyriakos and Colonel Georgios Kondylis.
context_page_description: Alexandros Papanastasiou was a Greek lawyer, sociologist and politician who served twice as the Prime Minister of Greece in the interwar period, being pioneer in the establishment of the Second Hellenic Republic.
context_section_description: In 1910, Papanastasiou was elected for the first time to the Hellenic Parliament. He fought for agrarian reform in Thessaly seeking to break up the big farms that existed there since the rule of the Ottoman Empire and redistribute them to the local farmers. In 1916, he joined the Provisional Government of National Defence of Eleftherios Venizelos in Thessaloniki which sought to bring Greece at the side of the Allies of World War I. He was immediately rewarded with the governorship of the Ionian Islands.
  After World War I, Papanastasiou took part in several Venizelos governments as Minister of Transportation, Minister of National Health and Interior Minister. When Venizelos lost the 1920 elections, he remained in Greece and criticised the People's Party governments under the successive Prime Ministers Dimitrios Rallis, Nikolaos Kalogeropoulos, Dimitrios Gounaris, Nikolaos Stratos and Petros Protopapadakis for their mishandling of the ongoing Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922.
  In 1921, along with others, he published a document entitled the Republican/Democratic Manifesto (Δημοκρατικό Μανιφέστο), which criticised the monarchy, warning for future destruction in the Asian Minor front and finally calling Constantine I to resign, so Greece to survive. He stated that Greece was "the creation of the spirit, labour and struggles of her children. It is not the property of Royalty and no part of Greece can be sacrificed for the sake of personal interests of her monarch." For the publication of this manifesto, Papanastasiou was imprisoned along with the other signatories after a trial. Georgios Papandreou was his defender.
  When the People's Party government collapsed, following the Asia Minor Disaster, Papanastasiou formed a government which, at his insistence, on March 25, 1924, proclaimed a Republic. The issue was submitted to a plebiscite with the voters approving the abolition of the monarchy on April 13, 1924. During his term of office, Papanastasiou also made proposals for the establishment of the University of Thessaloniki, the recognition of the common, demotic Greek language, the establishment of adult education centres, etc. In 1926, Papanastasiou founded the Democratic Union.
  From 1926 until 1928, he was Minister of Agriculture and was instrumental in the establishment of the Agricultural Bank of Greece. Papanastasiou briefly served as Prime Minister once more between May and June 1932. In 1936, he was placed under house arrest by the government of Ioannis Metaxas.
  Papanastasiou died of a heart attack on November 17, 1936.
caption: Proclamation of the Second Hellenic Republic, with crowds holding placards depicting Papanastasiou (left) and other republican leaders.
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