Activism against the Greek junta At the time of the ''
coup d'état in Greece by a group of colonels of the Greek military on 21 April 1967, she was in the United States, playing in Illya Darling'' on Broadway. She immediately joined the struggle against the
Greek military junta and started an international campaign, travelling worldwide to inform the public and contribute to the isolation and fall of the colonels. As a result, the dictatorial regime revoked her
Greek citizenship and confiscated her property. When her Greek citizenship was revoked, she said: "I was born a
Greek and I will die a Greek. Those bastards were born fascists and they will die fascists". In London, she worked with
Amalia Fleming and
Helen Vlachos of
Kathimerini against the junta of the colonels.
Involvement in politics After the fall of the junta and during the
metapolitefsi in 1974, Mercouri settled in Greece and was one of the founding members of the
Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), a
centre-left political party. She was a member of the party's Central Committee and a rapporteur for the Culture Section, while being involved in the women's movement, as well. In the
Greek legislative elections of 1974, she was a PASOK candidate in the
Piraeus B constituency, but the 7,500 votes were not enough to secure a seat for her in the
Hellenic Parliament (she needed 33 more votes), but she was successful in the
elections of 1977, after conducting a grass-roots campaign.
Minister for Culture (1981–1989) When PASOK won the elections of 1981, Mercouri was appointed
Minister for Culture of Greece, being the first woman in the post. She would serve in that position for two terms until 1989, when PASOK lost the elections and
New Democracy formed a cabinet. As Minister for Culture, Mercouri took advantage of her earlier career to promote Greece to other European leaders. She strongly advocated the return to Athens of the
Parthenon Marbles that were removed from
Parthenon and other buildings on the
Acropolis of Athens by
Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, and are now part of the
British Museum collection in
London. In 1983, she engaged in a televised debate with the then-director of the British Museum,
David M. Wilson, which was interpreted by many as a public relations disaster for the British Museum. In anticipation of the return of the marbles, she held an international competition for the construction of the
New Acropolis Museum, designated to display them and finally established in 2009. One of her greatest achievements was the establishment of the institution of the
European Capital of Culture within the framework of cultural policy of the
European Union. She had conceived and proposed the idea in 1983, with Athens being the first title-holder in 1985. She was also a devoted supporter of the
Athens bid to host the
Centennial Olympic Games. In 1983, during the first Greek
presidency of the Council of the European Union, Mercouri invited the Ministers for Culture of the other nine
member states of the European Union at
Zappeion, to increase the people's cultural awareness, since no reference was made to cultural questions in the
Treaty of Rome, which led to the establishment of formal sessions between the Ministers of Culture of the European Union. During the second presidency of Greece in 1988, she supported the cooperation between
Eastern Europe and the European Union, which was finally implemented one year later with the celebration of the Month of Culture in Eastern countries. Mercouri commissioned a study to integrate all the archaeological sites of Athens to create a traffic-free archaeological park to promote the
Greek culture. She introduced free access to museums and archaeological sites for Greek citizens, organized a series of exhibitions of Greek cultural heritage and
modern Greek art worldwide, supported the restoration of buildings of special architectural interest and the completion of the
Athens Concert Hall, and backed the establishment of the
Museum of Byzantine culture in
Thessaloniki. In June 1986, Melina Mercouri spoke at the
Oxford Union, the debating society, on the matter of the Parthenon Marbles and whether they should remain in London or be returned to Greece. She argued passionately for the Marbles' reunification. She said the Marbles are more to Greece than just works of art: they are an essential element of Greek heritage, which ties directly into cultural identity. She said: "You must understand what the Parthenon Marbles mean to us. They are our pride. They are our sacrifices. They are our noblest symbol of excellence. They are a tribute to the democratic philosophy. They are our aspirations and our name. They are the essence of Greekness."
Minister for Culture (1993–1994) In the
legislative elections of November 1989, PASOK lost and Mercouri was elected a member of the Hellenic Parliament and remained a member of the party's Executive Bureau. In 1990, she was a candidate for
Mayor of Athens, but she was defeated by
Antonis Tritsis. After PASOK's win in the
election of 1993, she was reappointed to the Ministry for Culture. Her major goals in this brief second term in office were to create a cultural park in the
Aegean Sea to protect and enhance the environment and civilization of the
Aegean Islands, and to link culture with education at all
education levels, introducing a system of post-training of teachers. == Personal life ==