Panagiotis Kanellopoulos

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Panagiotis Kanellopoulos was a Greek politician and Prime Minister. Kanellopoulos was born in Patra, Achaea prefecture, on December 13, 1902. He studied law in Athens, Heidelberg and Munich. A man of letters, Kanellopoulos wrote much about politics, law, sociology, philosophy and other literary works. His book "I was born in 1402" received an award by the Academy of Athens. In 1959, he became a member of the Academy.

He served as Minister of Defence under the Tsouderos government in exile, Minister of Reconstruction under Georgios Papandreou in the government of national unity and, until 1967, in other ministerial posts under Alexandros Diomedes, Constantine Karamanlis and others. In November 1945, he briefly served as Prime Minister.

Kanellopoulos became Karamanlis' uncle when his niece, Amalia, married Karamanlis. In 1963, he also became Karamanlis' successor as head of the National Radical Union party (ERE).

He was Prime Minister when the coup d' etat of April 21, 1967 occurred and was placed under virtual house arrest for the next seven years. When the junta fell in 1974, Kanellopoulos resumed his political career as a member of Parliament with the New Democracy party but twice refused to stand for President of the Republic when the post was offered to him.

He died on September 11, 1986.


Preceded by:
Archbishop Damaskinos
Prime Minister of Greece
1945
Succeeded by:
Themistoklis Sofoulis
Preceded by:
Ioannis Paraskevopoulos
Prime Minister of Greece
1967
Succeeded by:
Constantine Kollias