Post-war period postage stamp The end of World War II was not the end of Glezos' plight. On 3 March 1948, in the midst of the
Greek Civil War, he was put to trial for his political convictions and sentenced to death multiple times by the national government. His death penalties were reduced to a life sentence in 1950. Even though he was still imprisoned, he was elected member of the Hellenic Parliament in 1951, under the flag of the
United Democratic Left, also known as EDA (). Upon his election, he went on a
hunger strike demanding the release of his fellow EDA MPs that were imprisoned or exiled in the Greek islands. He ended his hunger strike upon the release of seven MPs from their exile. He was released from prison on 16 July 1954. On 5 December 1958, he was arrested again and convicted of
espionage, which was the common pretext for the persecution of the supporters of the left during the
Cold War. The
Soviet Union issued a postage stamp depicting Glezos, to which the Greek government responded with a postage stamp depicting
Imre Nagy. His release on 15 December 1962 was a result of the public outcry in Greece and abroad, including winning the
Lenin Peace Prize. During his second term of post-war political imprisonment, Glezos was reelected MP with EDA in 1961. During the ''coup d'état'' of 21 April 1967, Glezos was arrested at 2 am, together with the rest of the political leaders. During the
Regime of the Colonels, the military dictatorship led by
George Papadopoulos, he was imprisoned and
exiled until his release in 1971. Glezos' sentences, from the Second World War to the
Greek Civil War and the
Regime of the Colonels total 11 years and 4 months of imprisonment, and 4 years and 6 months of exile.
Since 1974 After the
restoration of democracy in Greece in 1974, Glezos participated in the reviving of EDA. In the elections of
October 1981 and
June 1985, he was elected Member of the
Greek Parliament, on a
Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) ticket. In 1984 he was elected Member of the
European Parliament, again on a PASOK ticket. He was the President of EDA from 1985 until 1989. In the meantime, in 1986, he withdrew from the Parliament, in order to try to implement a
grassroots democracy experiment. He did so in the community of
Aperathu, where he was elected as the President of the Community Council in 1986 elections. He then essentially abolished the privileges of the council, introducing a "
constitution" and establishing a local
assembly that had total control over the community administration. This model worked for several years, but in the long term the interest of the rest of his community wore off and the assembly was abandoned. Glezos remained the President until 1989. In the
2000 Greek legislative election he led the list of
Synaspismos (in English
Coalition) party of the radical left. In 2002, he formed the political group Active Citizens (which is part of
Coalition of the Radical Left, an alliance with
Synaspismos and other minor parties of the Greek left) and he ran as a candidate prefect for
Attica. In March 2010, Glezos was participating in a protest demonstration in Athens, when he was hit in the face by a police tear gas canister. He was carried away injured. In February 2012, Glezos was arrested by riot police while protesting in Athens. He was sprayed with tear gas by one of the police officers in that area. In the June 2012 parliamentary election, Glezos was elected as MP of the
Coalition of Radical Left (SYRIZA) party. Glezos was a SYRIZA candidate for the
European Parliament in the
elections of 25 May 2014. He was elected to the European Parliament with over 430,000 votes, more than any other candidate in Greece. At age 91, he was also the oldest person elected to the European Parliament in the 2014 election. In 2015, Glezos took a firm stance in favour of the "No" vote in the
Greek bailout referendum. As an MEP he also participated in a support protest in Brussels, along with thousands of Belgians in favour of Greeks voting negatively in the referendum, a few days before the latter takes place. He resigned from his position in the European Parliament in July 2015, being succeeded by
Nikolaos Chountis. The same year, he left SYRIZA before the
September 2015 Greek election, where he was an MP candidate with the newly formed
Popular Unity party. In 2018, Glezos publicly voiced his opposition to the
Prespa Agreement between Athens and Skopje on the resolution of the
Macedonia naming dispute -despite the agreement being promoted by the SYRIZA government party which he formerly supported. In an article for the Greek daily paper
Kathimerini, he insisted that the people of the
neighbouring country should "define themselves in accordance with their history, language, traditions... taking out of their mind the word Macedonia". == Non-political career ==