In July 1974 Greece, due to the pro-Hellenic coup in Cyprus, found himself on the brink of war with Turkey: in this circumstance Ghizikis decided to call the exile Karamanlís back home and entrust him with the reins of the government. This was the start of a progressive restoration of parliamentary democratic life: in November elections were held that gave the majority to Karamanlís and his party, New Democracy, while in December a referendum confirmed the abolition of the monarchy; in June 1975 the new republican constitution was promulgated. From the November 1977 elections Karamanlís emerged as the winner, later elected president in May 1980. He gave a new direction to foreign policy aimed at avoiding the international isolation of Greece and diplomatically resolving the disputes with Turkey: hence the reintegration of Greece into the military structure of NATO (1980), from which it left in 1974 during the Cyprus crisis, and entry into the EEC (1981).
After the elections of October 1981 he became prime minister A. Papandréu, leader of the Pan-Hellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK). In March 1985 C. Sartzetakis was elected to the presidency of the Republic, while the old Karamanlís left the scene. In June, according to computerminus, the political elections were once again won by PASOK; however, the right-wing opposition (New Democracy) recorded a big leap forward which signaled Papandréu’s loss of charisma. Already subjected to tensions due to the economic plan undertaken (freezing of prices and wages and budget cuts, together with the limitation of the right to strike), towards the end of 1988 the government entered into crisis following the scandal involving its president, accused of corruption in the events concerning the Bank of Crete. Introduced the modification of the electoral system (from majority to proportional), in the consultations of June 1989 PASOK suffered a clear defeat, giving up the relative majority to New Democracy. Given the impossibility of establishing an ideologically homogeneous government formation, the latter and the Communist Party gave life to an anomalous coalition, led by T. Tsannetakis, with the task of investigating the scandal: the indictment of Papandréu approved, the elections, held (July 1989) under the interim presidency of Y. Grivas, preceded by a resurgence of terrorism, confirmed the balance of power created in June.
This allowed the creation of a coalition government and therefore a “business” one, composed only of technicians and chaired by X. Zolotas, former governor of the Bank of Greece, awaiting further political clarification. The victory of New Democracy (April 1990) led to the leadership of the executive composed of technicians only and chaired by X. Zolotas, former governor of the Bank of Greece, awaiting further political clarification. The victory of New Democracy (April 1990) led to the leadership of the executive composed of technicians only and chaired by X. Zolotas, former governor of the Bank of Greece, awaiting further political clarification. The victory of New Democracy (April 1990) led to the leadership of the executive C. Mitsotakis and the following month Karamanlís was again elected head of state. The conservative majority, however, soon fell apart and in September 1993 the Parliament was dissolved. The subsequent elections sanctioned the return to power of A. Papandréu. In homage to the widespread nationalist sentiment, the socialist leader tightened relations with Macedonia and with Albania itself, despite this determined the grievances of the European Union. Meanwhile, other left-wing political formations emerged, which garnered a lot of support, taking them away from New Democracy and PASOK. The latter despite the relative loss of consensus and ups and downs that weakened its compactness in the elections of 22 September 1996 confirmed itself as the majority party. After Papandréu’s death, Kostas Simitis succeeded him. EMU. Once the coveted milestone failed, the government intensified its austerity policy, which was opposed by growing social tension, with a wave of strikes and sometimes violent demonstrations, and the birth of an internal branch of parliamentarians mostly linked to the old guard of the late Papandréu and opposed to the sacrifices imposed by the economic restructuring. In the administrative elections of October 1998 and the European elections of June 1999, against the background of a very high extensionism, the conservatives managed to capitalize on popular discontent with a shift in consensus on New Democracy, which however also suffered an internal split due to differences on the Political Economics.
In the early elections in April, always dominated by economic issues related to compliance with the parameters for entry into Europe established in 1992 by the Maastricht Treaty, Simitis was confirmed at the helm of the government. However, his interventions on unemployment and privatization of state-owned enterprises, in addition to the devaluation of the currency by 14%, allowed the acceptance of the Greek request to join EMU by 1 January 2001 in March. In the last years of the twentieth century, it was characterized by tension with Turkey, which diminished after the acceptance (December 1999) by Athens of the Turkish candidacy for member of the European Union; by differences, resolved, with Macedonia; and the political-military crisis in the Balkans between 1998 and 1999, in particular the Kosovo war.
