Tsaldaris was born in
Alexandria,
Egypt. He studied law at the
University of Athens as well as
Berlin,
London and
Florence. He became a
prefectural politician from 1915 to 1917. In 1926, he was elected as a deputy for the first time in the
Argolidocorinthia prefecture (now split into
Argolis and
Corinthia) with the
Freethinkers' Party of
Ioannis Metaxas. In 1928, he became a member of the
People's Party, the leader of which was his uncle
Panagis Tsaldaris. He entered Panagis Tsaldaris' second government as Vice Minister of Transportation from 1933 to 1935, and continued as Under-Secretary to the
Prime Minister. After the death of Panagis Tsaldaris in 1936, he became a member of the administrative commission of the People's Party, which was however soon dissolved under the
dictatorship of Metaxas. After Liberation in 1944, he was recognized as the leader of the reborn People's Party, and won in the controversial
1946 elections as leader of the right-wing "United Patriotic Party" coalition and became prime minister of Greece from April 1946 through January 1947. His government carried out the plebiscite on the return of the monarchy in August 1946. During 1947-1949 he acted as the head of the Greek representation in the
UN General Assembly. He was Deputy Prime Minister during the governments of
Dimitrios Maximos (1947),
Themistoklis Sophoulis (1947–1949) and
Alexandros Diomidis (1949–1950). He once again became prime minister from August 1947 until September of the same year. With the foundation and rise to power of the
Greek Rally of Marshal
Alexandros Papagos, the People's party lost a large part of its electoral base and Tsaldaris did not win in the
1952 election. He was voted into Parliament with the
Liberal Democratic Union, in the
1956 elections, but in the
1958 elections, as head of the
Union of Populars, he failed to be elected. Shortly afterwards he ended his political career. He died in Athens in 1970. ==References==