Editing History of modern Greece (section)

==Transition and democracy (1973–2009)==
{{Main|Metapolitefsi|Third Hellenic Republic}}

On 25 November 1973, following the bloody suppression of the [[Athens Polytechnic uprising]] on 17 November, the hardliner Brigadier [[Dimitrios Ioannides]] overthrew Papadopoulos and tried to continue the dictatorship despite the popular unrest the uprising had triggered. Ioannides' attempt in July 1974 to overthrow Archbishop [[Makarios III|Makarios]], the [[President of Cyprus]], brought Greece to the brink of war with Turkey, which [[Turkish invasion of Cyprus|invaded Cyprus]] and occupied part of the island.<ref name="ReferenceA">Clogg, Richard. ''A Concise History of Greece''.</ref>

Senior Greek military officers then withdrew their support from the junta, which collapsed. [[Constantine Karamanlis]] returned from exile in [[France]] to establish a government of national unity until elections could be held. Karamanlis worked to defuse the risk of war with Turkey and also legalised the Communist Party, which had been illegal since 1947.<ref name="ReferenceA" /> His newly organized party, [[New Democracy (Greece)|New Democracy]] (ND), won the [[Greek legislative election, 1974|elections]] held in November 1974 by a wide margin, and he became prime minister.

Following the [[Greek republic referendum, 1974|1974 referendum]] which resulted in the abolition of the monarchy, a new constitution was approved by parliament on 19 June 1975. Parliament elected [[Constantine Tsatsos]] as [[President of Greece|President of the Republic]]. In the [[Greek legislative election, 1977|parliamentary elections]] of 1977, New Democracy again won a majority of seats. In May 1980, Prime Minister Karamanlis was elected to succeed Tsatsos as president. [[George Rallis]] succeeded Karamanlis as prime minister.{{Sfn|Koliopoulos|Veremis|2009|pp=155–161}}

On 1 January 1981, Greece became the tenth member of the [[European Community]] (now the [[European Union]]).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/european-union_157/eu-members_2186/chronology_2590.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120324100403/http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/european-union_157/eu-members_2186/chronology_2590.html|url-status=dead|title=EU members - Chronology - Ministère des Affaires étrangères|archivedate=24 March 2012}}</ref> In [[Greek legislative election, 1981|parliamentary elections]] held on 18 October 1981, Greece elected its first socialist government when the [[Panhellenic Socialist Movement]] (PASOK), led by [[Andreas Papandreou]], won 172 of 300 seats.{{Sfn|Koliopoulos|Veremis|2009|pp=161–162}} On 29 March 1985, after Prime Minister Papandreou declined to support President Karamanlis for a second term, triggering a [[Greek constitutional crisis of 1985|constitutional crisis]], Supreme Court Justice [[Christos Sartzetakis]] was elected president by the Greek parliament.{{Sfn|Koliopoulos|Veremis|2009|pp=165–166}}

Greece had two rounds of parliamentary elections in 1989. The first coalition was between conservatives and communists to form a government with a limited mandate; the investigation for the numerous corruption scandals, such as the [[Koskotas scandal]] and [[Yugoslav corn scandal]], that was rocking Papandreou's government.{{Sfn|Koliopoulos|Veremis|2009|p=170}} This coalition was extraordinary for Greek society and was the first step in healing the wounds of the [[Greek Civil War]]. After the indictment of Papandreou and new elections, a National Unity government under [[Xenophon Zolotas]] was formed to reverse the economy's deterioration.{{Sfn|Koliopoulos|Veremis|2009|p=170}} Party leaders withdrew their support in February 1990, and elections were held on 8 April. New Democracy, led by [[Constantine Mitsotakis]], won 150 seats in that [[Greek legislative election, 1990|election]] and subsequently gained two others.{{Sfn|Koliopoulos|Veremis|2009|p=171}} However, a split between Mitsotakis and his first foreign minister, [[Antonis Samaras]], in 1992, led to Samaras' dismissal and the eventual collapse of the ND government. In [[Greek legislative election, 1993|new elections]] in September 1993, Papandreou returned to power.{{Sfn|Koliopoulos|Veremis|2009|p=180}}

On 17 January 1996, following a protracted illness, Papandreou resigned and was replaced as prime minister by the former Minister of Trade and Industry [[Costas Simitis]].{{Sfn|Koliopoulos|Veremis|2009|p=181}} Within days, the new prime minister had to handle a major Greek-Turkish crisis over the [[Imia/Kardak]] islands. Simitis subsequently won re-election in the [[Greek legislative election, 1996|1996]] and [[Greek legislative election, 2000|2000 elections]]. After two decades of the exuberant rhetoric of Simitis' predecessors and financial stagnation,<ref>{{cite news|title = Simitis victory allows him to chart his own course| url=https://www.politico.eu/article/simitis-victory-allows-him-to-chart-his-own-course/}}</ref> the [[Economy of Greece|Greek economy]] was put in order and became one of the fastest-growing economies in Europe,<ref>{{cite book| last = Gallant |first = Thomas W. |title= Modern Greece From the War of Independence to the Present | publisher = Bloomsbury Publishing |date=2016| page = 306 |isbn =9781472567581 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ubfMDAAAQBAJ }}</ref> with an average annual increase of 4.1% of [[gross domestic product]] (GDP). The performance of the Greek economy under Simitis sealed the Greek entry into the [[Euro]] currency, closing the journey of aligning Greece with the West, which started with [[Eleftherios Venizelos]] and continued with [[Constantine Karamanlis]]. Simitis also succeeded in the [[Cyprus in the European Union|Cypriot accession into the EU]], a diplomatic priority for Greece. In 2004, Simitis retired, and [[George Papandreou (junior)|George Papandreou]] succeeded him as PASOK leader.<ref>[http://www.greekembassy.org/Embassy/content/en/Article.aspx?office=1&folder=514&article=12886 PM Simitis resigns as PASOK president, initiates election of new party leader<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120217093404/http://www.greekembassy.org/Embassy/content/en/Article.aspx?office=1&folder=514&article=12886 |date=17 February 2012}}</ref>

In the [[Greek legislative election, 2004|March 2004 elections]], PASOK was defeated by New Democracy, led by [[Kostas Karamanlis]], the nephew of the former president.{{Sfn|Koliopoulos|Veremis|2009|p=190}} The government called [[Greek legislative election, 2007|early elections]] in September 2007 (normally, elections would have been held in March 2008), and New Democracy again was the majority party in the Parliament.{{Sfn|Koliopoulos|Veremis|2009|p=199}} As a result of that defeat, PASOK undertook a [[Panhellenic Socialist Movement leadership election, 2007|party election]] for a new leader. In that contest, George Papandreou was reelected as the head of the socialist party in Greece. In the [[2009 Greek parliamentary election|2009 elections]] however, PASOK became the majority party in the Parliament and George Papandreou became Prime Minister of Greece. After PASOK lost its majority in the Parliament, ND and PASOK joined the smaller [[Popular Orthodox Rally]] in a grand coalition, pledging their parliamentary support for a government of national unity headed by former European Central Bank vice-president [[Lucas Papademos]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bosco |first=Anna |last2=Verney |first2=Susannah |date=2016-10-01 |title=From Electoral Epidemic to Government Epidemic: The Next Level of the Crisis in Southern Europe |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13608746.2017.1303866 |journal=South European Society and Politics |volume=21 |issue=4 |pages=383–406 |doi=10.1080/13608746.2017.1303866 |issn=1360-8746|hdl=11368/2897301 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>