During
the political crisis surrounding
Greece's entry into the
First World War, Papandreou was one of Venizelos's closest supporters against the pro-German monarch,
King Konstantínos I. When Venizelos in 1916 left Athens, Papandreou accompanied him to
Crete, and then went to
Lesbos, where he mobilised anti-monarchist supporters in the islands and rallied support for Venizelos's insurgent
pro-Allied government in Thessaloniki. , Colonels
Plastiras and Gonatas, with their political advisor, Geórgios Papandreou senior (left). In the
1920 general election, Papandreou unsuccessfully ran as an independent liberal in the
Lesbos constituency. In 1921 as a lawyer he defended
Alexandros Papanastasiou, during a trial for his critic against King Konstantínos. Because of an article calling on King Konstantínos to abdicate, he was imprisoned by the royalist regime and later he narrowly escaped assassination from royalist extremists in Lesbos. From January to October 1923, he served as
interior minister in the cabinet of
Stylianos Gonatas. In the December
1923 elections, he was elected as a
Venizelist Liberal Party member of parliament for
Lésvos, and served as finance minister for just 11 days in June 1925, education minister in 1930–1932 and transport minister in 1933. As minister of education he reformed the Greek school system and built many schools for the children of refugees of the
Greco-Turkish War. During the dictatorship of
Pangalos, he was again imprisoned. In 1935, he set up the
Democratic Socialist Party of Greece. The same year, a royalist coup by
General Geórgios Kondylis took place for the re-establishment of monarchy and he was placed in internal exile. A lifelong opponent of the
Greek monarchy, he was again exiled in 1938 by the Greek royalist dictator
Ioannis Metaxas. Following the
Axis occupation of Greece in the
Second World War, he was imprisoned by the
Italian authorities. He later fled to the
Middle East and joined the predominantly Venizelist government-in-exile based in the
Kingdom of Egypt. With British support,
King Geórgios II appointed him as prime minister, and under his premiership took place the
Lebanon conference (May 1944) and later the
Caserta Agreement (September 1944), in an attempt to stop the crisis in Greece and the conflicts between
EAM and non-EAM forces (a prelude of the
civil war) and establish a national unity government.
Liberation of Greece and the Dekemvrianá events , after the liberation from the Axis powers. After the evacuation of
Greece by the Axis powers, he entered
Athens (October 1944) as Prime Minister of the
Greek government-in-exile with some units of the
Greek Army and the allied British. During the same month, he became prime minister in the , which had succeeded the Greek government-in-exile. He tried to normalise the highly polarised situation between the EAM and non-EAM forces, collaborating mainly with
Lieutenant-General Sir Ronald Scobie, who was, after the Caserta agreement, responsible for all the Allied forces. Although he resigned in 1945, after the
Dekemvriana events, he continued to hold high office. From 1946–1952 he served as labour minister, supplies minister, education minister, finance minister and public order minister. In 1950–1952, he was also
deputy prime minister. The 1952–1961 period was a very difficult one for Papandreou. The liberal political forces in the
Kingdom of Greece were gravely weakened by internal disputes and suffered electoral defeat from the conservatives. Papandreou continuously accused
Sofoklis Venizelos for these maladies, considering his leadership dour and uninspiring.
Founder of the Centre Union and later confrontation with the Palace In 1961, Papandreou revived Greek liberalism by founding the
Centre Union Party, a confederation of old liberal Venizelists, social democrats and dissatisfied conservatives. After the
elections of "violence and fraud" of 1961, Papandreou declared a "Relentless Struggle" against the right-wing
ERE and the "parakrátos" (
deep state) of the right. Finally, his party won the
elections of November 1963 and those of 1964, the second with a
landslide majority. His progressive policies as premier aroused much opposition in conservative circles, as did the prominent role played by his son
Andreas Papandreou, whose policies were seen as being considerably left of center. Andreas disagreed with his father on many important issues, and developed a network of political organizations, the "Democratic Leagues" (
Dimokratikoi Syndesmoi) to lobby for more progressive policies. He also managed to take control of the Center Union's youth organization. Papandreou had opposed the
Zürich and London Agreement, which led to the foundation of the Republic of
Cyprus. Following clashes between the
Greek and
Turkish communities, his government sent a
Greek army division to the island.
King Constantine II openly opposed Papandreou's government, and there were frequent ultra-rightist plots in the Army, which destabilised the government. Finally, the King engineered a split in the Centre Union, and in July 1965, in a crisis known as
Iouliana, he dismissed the government following a dispute over control of the Ministry of Defence. After the April 1967 military coup by the
Colonels' junta led by
George Papadopoulos, Papandreou was arrested. Papandreou died under house arrest in November 1968. His funeral became the occasion for a massive anti-dictatorship demonstration. He is interred at the
First Cemetery of Athens, alongside his son Andreas. ==Legacy==