Center Union - New Forces

From Phantis
(Redirected from Centre Union-New Forces)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Center Union - New Forces (EK-ND, Greek:Ένωσις Κέντρου-Νέες Δυνάμεις, Enosis Kentrou-Nees Dynameis) was the continuation of the Center Union party of Georgios Papandreou after the restoration of democracy in Greece (1974). It was the merger of a Center Union fraction led by Georgios Mavros and the Movement of New Political Forces (KNPD).

In the elections of 1974, the party became the second largest of the country, after New Democracy. It obtained about 20% of the vote and 60 seats in the Hellenic Parliament. On February 5, 1976, the Center Union - New Forces merged into the Union of the Democratic Centre led by veteran centrist politician Ioannis Zigdis.

Their program for the elections of 1974 did not differ much from that of New Democracy; it included slogans concerning "participatory democracy", "checks imposed on capital (Greek or foreign) by the people", "Greek social democracy", and so on. With the death of the old centrist leader Georgios Papandreou in 1968, who achieved massive support for his centre party Center Union before the coup, and the creation by Andreas Papandreou of socialist PASOK, the old center had lost its appeal to both new and old voters. Also, the abolition of the Greek monarchy in 1974, through a referendum proclaimed by Constantine Karamanlis, deprived the anti-royalist center parties of a popular cause and an issue which had defined their identity.

A portion of content for this article is credited to Wikipedia. Content under GNU Free Documentation License(GFDL)